P3: The Infernal Devices
by Dim95
Summary: In the England of the 1878, the Clave its under threatened by Axel Mortmain: a vengeful man who hates them for causing the death of his adoptive parents. Everything changes when a strange blue-haired young man enters the scene and helps the Shadowhunters of the London Institute to find him and bring him to justice.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all guys, I bring you a fanfiction of the Persona saga and the trilogy of Shadowhunter Infernal Devices;** **based on the fanfic of** **A demon among devils and the King Soul.**

 **I hope you enjoy this fanfic.**

* * *

 **London.**

 **England.**

 **1878.**

A meeting of the Clave of Council had been held in the Pyxis Chamber at Westminster Abbey to discuss the issue of the threat of Magister Axel Mortmain.

All the shadowhunters of all the Institutes of the world gathered in one of the abandoned halls of the abbey to solve the problem they went through. Among those referred to Tessa Gray and the rest of the news from the Institute of London that are present at that meeting, however, however, there is nothing better than all the members of the Clave.

With all those gathered, Wayland Consul will begin the meeting.

"Inquisitor Whitelaw" spoke the Consul, "the Mortal Sword, please"

Alluded stood up, and from his robe he drew a huge sword. Tessa recognized her instantly: it was the sword of the Codex, the angel Raziel carried the rising of the lake, and the one given him by Jonathan Shadowhunter, the first of them.

"Maellartach," Tessa murmured, giving the sword a name. While Metatron explained to him a Minato that was one of the swords that the angels used, they have an amazing power, impregnated by the Celestial Fire of the Heaven.

When he picked it up, he again felt as if the Consul was enjoying himself.

"It seems he has been studying," he warned. "Which one of you was teaching him? William? James?"

"Tessa learns by herself, sir," Will replied, in a light and cheerful tone, very contrary to the serious atmosphere that reigned in the room. "It is very inquisitive"

"One more reason why I should not be here, neither of us" Tessa did not have to look, she recognized the voice: Benedict Lightwood. "This is the Great Council. We do not bring downworlders to this place, "he added in a tense voice." The Mortal Sword can not be used to make you tell the truth; It is not a shadow hunter. So, what is the Sword for, or both of you here? "

Minato could feel some of his angels and archangels, dismayed and insulted.

"Patience, Benedict," Wayland Consul, held the Sword effortlessly, as if it weighed nothing. His gaze fell on Tessa became more lasting, while in Minato, only the subject of the emotion in his eyes could be read; We keep a reserved and calm face, like ice. "It seems that you, boy, do not feel any fear, right?" The blue haired boy nodded. The Consul laughed. "Brave, very brave, neither of you will get hurt, the Agreements forbid it"

"I'm not a witch," said Tessa. "I do not wear any brand of witch" was a stranger to have to repeat that, but when they had interrogated him before, they have always been members of the Clave, not by the Consul himself. This was a tall, broad-shouldered man who exuded power and authority. Just the kind of power and authority that so badly suited Benedict Lightwood that Charlotte also possessed.

While the boy, he was possibly a sorcerer; he had a mop of blue hair that only covered the left side of his eye and left the right one exposed, gray like Jem's. As for his attire, if it was the strangest thing; He was wearing black long-sleeved trousers and shirt over a white collared shirt with a loose black bow tie and a kind of cylinder with a light blue bar with two buttons, which had a cable that went directly through his shoulder; she could tell that it was connected to the two gray metal covers on her shoulders. She also had a patch in the shape of a black and white hourglass around a red border, and a red band with black letters that read "SEES", Tessa could guess that it must be some secret company or group of some human government . In order to finish, in its waist it took the cover with its pistol kept, doing to disconcert to Tessa. Everything about him was weird.

"Then what are you?" asked Wayland.

"She does not know," the Inquisitor replied dryly. "Neither do the Silent Brothers know, that goes also for the boy"

"Miss Gray will be allowed to sit down," the Consul determined. "And give testimony, although this will only count as half that of a shadow hunter." He turned to the Branwells and Minato. "Meanwhile, Henry, for the time being you are excused from being questioned, Charlotte and the young man have to say everything"

Tessa swallowed her resentment and was a place on the first row of seats, where she joined Henry with the appearance of gray hair. Jessamine was there, in a light brown alpaca dress, with a boring and annoying look, but at the same time curious with the blue haired boy. Tessa sat next to her, with Will and Jem on the other side. This was right by his side, and since the seats were narrow, Tessa could feel the warmth of his shoulder against hers.

At the beginning, the Council proceeded like many other Enclave meetings. They asked Charlotte to tell what she recorded of the night when the Enclave had attacked the base of the De Quincey vampire, and she gave a touch to her followers who are present, while Tessa's brother, Nate, betrayed the La confidence that had deposited in him and in the degree, Axel Mortmain, enter the Institute, where he had murdered two of the servants and the state of kidnapping Tessa. When the girl was called, I realized what you had already said: that we did not know where Nate had met, that they had not known anything about his parents until the Dark Sisters knew each other and that he had always believed that his parents were humans. Then came the turn of the strange boy with blue hair.

"So" the Consul spoke diplomatically." Do you understand the Institute and help the Enclave against the automata, right? "

The boy nodded without hesitation.

"Is it true too?"

He nodded again.

"Let's also see what a mistake is with a spear, using your gun as an invocation method, right?"

Another nod

"Could you tell me what was the identity of the human you summoned?"

Henry raised his hand like a child excited and surprised.

"Yes, Henry"

"Consul Wayland, I know the identity of the individual" he swallowed nervously: "Cu Chulainn"

The mere mention of the Irish hero has attracted all the attention of the children in the Council, except the Enclave, and they have witnessed its appearance, which has been a great shock in their minds.

"Is true?" Inquisitor Whitelaw frowned.

"Of course it is!" Henry said in a surprised voice. "Both I and the others were witnesses! I swear by Raziel!"

A whispered one fluttered through the seats of those present. Consul Wayland reassured them all.

"Very well," Wayland moaned. "Could you please demote that ability"

Minato nodded and pulled out his gun. All the representatives exclaimed when the cannon was stuck in their science, once the blood, a blue crystal came out from behind; then he took the form of a man dressed in a white armor with violet borders and a long cape; with a little blue eyes.

"Cu Chulainn, at your service" the Irish hero bowed.

For a single instant, the entire Council said nothing; neither the Consul, nor the Inquisitor Whitelaw, nor the rest of the new names of the word.

"So you are all the half-angel guardians who protect humans from demons, very interesting"

There was no word.

 _"Please, talk, I do not bite"_

The Consul, trying to recover his sanity, decided to break the silence.

"Mr. C-Cu Chulainn," he stuttered. "E-are you r-real?"

Cu Chulainn balanced Gae Bolg in an extraordinary way, and made a cut on the lectern, making all the Nephilim tense.

 _"Is that enough proof?"_

The Consul and the Inquisitor nodded at the same time.

"W-but, how is it possible that you can be alive?" Henry to the same nervous, but at the same time curious.

"Ah, nephilims, there are many things you are not prepared to know, and it is impolite to treat miss Gray in a hostile manner."

That drew all the attention, including Jem and Will, to Tessa, who had to endure blushing.

"In any case, the Mortal Sword has the right to judge the hidden truths, whether it be a simple sorcerer or any other supernatural being"

All the jaws opened.

"I think it's better to continue with the investigation and stop the xenophobia, understand, guys" the Irish hero vanished like dust.

After spending an hour of silence, Inquisitor Whitelaw decided to take command and return to the main topic, but still trembling.

"He's right, Richard and Elizabeth Gray have been thoroughly investigated," said the Inquisitor. "There is no evidence to suggest that any of them was anything other than human. The young man, the brother, is also human, and it could well be, as Mortmain suggested, that the girl's father was a demon, but, in that case, there remains the question of the non-existence of the witch brand "

"It's very curious everything about you, even that power you have," admitted the Consul, looking at Tessa, then at Minato, who still could not stop being nervous. He concentrated on Tessa again. "You have no idea what your limits are, your structure, have you been tested with something belonging to Mortmain, to see if you could access his memories or thoughts?"

"Yes, I've... tried... with a cane that fell off.

"But?"

Tessa shook her head.

"I could not do it, there was no spark in him, no ... life, nothing I could connect with"

The Consul told him to sit down again. She saw the face of Benedict Lightwood doing it; the lips were pressed together in a thin and furious line. He wondered what he could have said to make him mad.

"And nobody has seen that Mortmain's hair since his ... altercation with miss Gray in the Shrine" the Consul continued while Tessa took a seat and Minato walked towards a pillar, away from the meeting, with all eyes directed at the. He leaned on it and put his hands in his pockets; his face showed indifference.

The Inquisitor flipped through some papers that were stacked on the lectern.

"Their houses have been searched and they have been found totally empty of any belongings, their stores have recorded the same result, even our friends at Scotland Yard have investigated it, that man has disappeared, literally, as our friend William Herondale says"

Will smiled from ear to ear, as if he had been complimented, though Tessa saw the malice beneath that smile, like a light reflected off the edge of the blade.

"My suggestion," said the Consul, "is that Charlotte and Henry Branwell be censored, and that during the next three months the official actions they carry out for the Clave must pass through me to obtain my approval ..."

"My lord Consul ..." A firm and clear voice rose from the crowd. Heads turned, looking; Tessa had the feeling that this, that someone interrupted the Consul, did not happen very often. "If I may speak ..."

The Consul frowned.

"Benedict Lightwood" he replied. "You have already had the opportunity to speak, during the testimonies"

"I have no objection to the testimonies that have been offered," he answered. His aquiline profile was even more acute, under the magic light. "It's your judgment that I question"

The Consul bent over the lectern, but not too much for it to break. He was a robust man, with a thick neck and broad chest, and his large hands seemed capable, separately, of beating Benedict's neck easily. Tessa wished he would. From what she had seen, she did not like him.

"And for what reason, Benedict?"

"I think he has let his long friendship with the Fairchild family blind him to the failures of Charlotte as director of the Institute," Benedict replied, and the room was filled with air. "The mistakes made on the night of July 5 have done more than embarrass the Clave and make us lose the Pyxis, it has severely damaged our relationship with the underground, attacking De Quincey without reason"

"Several complaints have already been received in Compensations," muttered the Consul, "but they will be answered in accordance with the Law. Compensations is not really your problem, Benedict ..."

"And," he continued, raising the tone, "worst of all: he has let a dangerous criminal escape with plans to discredit and destroy the Shadowhunters, and we have no idea where he can be now. the responsibility of finding him on the shoulders on which he should fall, on those who asked for it! "

He raised his voice. In fact, a clamor rose throughout the room; Charlotte looked dismayed; Henry, confused, and Will, furious. The Consul, whose eyes had been darkened alarmingly when Benedict had mentioned the Fairchilds. But all a thundering voice shut them up.

All eyes turned to Minato, who walked slowly, with the Evoker summoning his Persona; who was no more than the most powerful archangel of all the hierarchy of Heaven, the Voice of God: Metatron.

"Neither you nor all of you have the right to judge them! I CAN ONLY DO IT!" Their voice made them tremble before all the members of the Council, who witnessed the appearance of a true angel. "I am Metatron, the Voice of God and your judge in the world of humans!"

The appearance of the most powerful of the archangels silenced them at the time and, for the first time, they feared that their actions would be judged by the scribe of God. Benedict Lightwood felt the gaze of the Angel of Contracts on him; He knew immediately that his soul was at stake.

 _"_ You have no right to say that the nephilim Charlotte Branwell has done a bad job!" His voice was like thunder _. "_ My brother Raziel has placed his trust in you so you can protect humans from demons! And so he rewards it in that vulgar way! The Sword has every right to judge the hidden truths, which go to Theresa Gray, be it a nephilim or a witch, all truths must come to light! You should know, nephilim!"

Benedict, pale as a ghost, sat down without saying a word.

 _"Axel Mortmain has committed a serious crime in the name of Heaven: locking an angel in an artifact is a heresy for me and my father! Theresa Gray, deliver the necklace"_

Tessa clung to the mechanical angel; His heart did not stop beating like crazy. He looked at Charlotte, who was nodding and was afraid to do so. The girl nodded and walked shakily towards Metatron. He gave it to him obediently and sat with him in his place; He did not stop shaking like a jelly.

Metatron squeezed the device, where a cutting light illuminated the room with its celestial splendor.

On the floor, the figure of an angel with golden laughter and a Roman garment was revealed. Metatron helped his brother to his feet.

The whole Council fell silent.

"Ithuriel, brother, are you okay?"

"Metatron," said the Ithuriel angel in a weak voice. "Brother, thanks for helping me"

"Ithuriel, brother, I need you to tell me why that human left you in that prison"

"I was imprisoned by the wich John Shade through a spell that allowed my soul to be encased in a mechanical angel-shaped necklace for his wife, but his adopted son, Axel Mortmain, decided to make improvements over the years, and then be delivered to the mother of Theresa Gray, a nephilim who does not remember being a shadow hunter. "

That surprised all the members of the meeting.

"But, why, why did Axel Mormaint decide to do that?"

"And why did Theresa Gray's mother never know she was a shadowhunter?" Minato responded with curiosity.

"Revenge, he did it for revenge," said the angel recovering from a weakened state. "Axel Mortmain did it for the death of his adoptive parents, it was a group of shadowhunters who murdered them for breaking the Law. With an anger inside, he decided to steal the granddaughter of one of the shadowhunters who murdered his parents: Aloysius Starkweather "

The faces of all the shadowhunters froze, pale as ghosts. Charlotte's mouth dropped open, that meant that Tessa ...

"Does that mean that Theresa Gray's mother was a Shadowhunter who was exchanged for a human baby?" Minato crossed his arms, his tone was reserved.

"Exactly. His plan of revenge worked, but he decided to take a new step in his plans: he invoked an Eidolon demon that would take on the appearance of Elizabeth Gay's husband while the real one was at work. Axel Mortmain's ambitions increased, that's why he decided that I was his guardian, to protect her from any harm, I needed her to create a career that could survive shadow hunters, brother Theresa Gray should not fall into the hands by Axel Mortmain "

"Ithuriel, you have my word, as our father's representative, I will make Axel Mortmain severely punished for his heresy and conspiracy" he gestured towards Minato. _"_ The Messiah will help us on our way to find him"

"Messiah?" Ithuriel looked at Minato, who showed no sign of fear; Only a calm and patient face. "That means that you are the representation of salvation."

Minato shrugged.

Ithuriel bowed his head respectfully.

"I leave it to you two." With that, Ithuriel disappeared in a resplendent flash, whose soul is now in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Metatron raised his voice:

" _From now on, Axel Mortmain will pay for his crimes of capturing an angel from Heaven; his sentence is death! Not even your Council will have the right to tell us if we should look for them yes or no! I am the Voice of God and a representation of his divine providence on Earth! Axel Mormaint will be hunted from now on, and there will be no objection!"_ Metatron disappeared like smoke blue.

For a long time, there was no response after another silence, then another.

Consul Wayland decided to break the silence:

"Well, given the information shown to all of us, the search for Axel Mortmain will result." Charlotte and Henry Branwell will be able to gather necessary information about his whereabouts without any interference from the Clave.

There was no word. An order given by an archangel of Heaven is a direct order without hesitation.

"The Inquisitor agrees?"

"Yes," answered Whitelaw with a slight tremor in his voice.

"Benedict, do you want to say something else?"

Benedict remained pale in his seat, shook his head in response.

"Well, to make things easier, new servants will be provided, as is customary." Cyril, the brother of the late servant, Thomas, is coming from Bristol to join the Institute, and the Dublin Institute has dispensed with his second cook. Both are well-trained fighters, to which I should add, Charlotte, that yours should have been. "

"Both Thomas and Agatha were trained," Charlotte commented with numbness in her voice; I could not help but tremble at the revelations that she and the others witnessed. Especially Tessa.

"But there are several of your house that do not" Benedict intervened, still having his face pale. "Not only is Miss Lovelace very late in her training, but also her maid, Sophie, and miss Gray" Benedict decided to use the surname of the late granddaughter of Aloysius Starkweather, nor did she want to disrespect her; since I did not want to suffer an angelic punishment. "Well, since she seems determined to make a new addition to your home, it would not be a bad idea if she and the maid received some basic defense knowledge"

Tessa looked at Jem, surprised.

"It refers to me?"

Jem nodded. His expression was grim.

"I can not, I would cut off my own foot!" exclaimed Tessa.

"If you have to cut someone's foot, cut off Benedict's," Will murmured.

"Nothing will happen to you, Tessa, it's nothing you can not do," Jem began, but the rest of his words were lost under the voice of Benedict.

"In fact," he said, "since you two are very busy investigating the whereabouts of Mortmain, I suggest presenting my children, Gabriel and Gideon, who is returning from Spain today, to be in charge of the training, both are excellent fighters and will do well. certain experience as trainers "

"Father!" protested Gabriel. He seemed horrified; it was evident that Benedict had not talked to him about it before.

"We can train our own servants," Charlotte replied, but the Consul shook his head.

"Benedict Lightwood offers you a generous gift.

Charlotte's face was flushed. After a long moment he inclined his head, accepting the words of the Consul. Tessa felt dizzy. The first for being an experiment of Mortmain, and the second for his training. Of course, one of her favorite heroines had always been Capitola, from the novel The Hidden Hand, who could fight like a man and dress like he was. But that did not mean he wanted to be her.

"Very well," continued the Consul. "This session of the Council is finished, we will meet again, in the same place, in two weeks, you can leave"

Naturally, not everyone left immediately. There was a sudden clamor of voices as people began to get up from the seats and to chat about what happened; the appearance of a blue-haired boy who can invoke the Irish hero of the Ulster Cycle, and also the invocation of one of the most powerful archangels and the release of an angel encased in a necklace; not to mention the revelation that Tessa Gray was actually the great-granddaughter of Aloysius Starkweather, while the other who died for her first marks was a simple mundane. Everything was an unusual meeting.

Charlotte sat very still; Henry, at his side, looking like he was desperately looking for something comforting to tell her, without coming up with anything. His hand was resting on his wife. Will glared at Gabriel Lightwood, who stared coldly in his direction. As for Minato, he was standing on the stand, with his hands in his pocket and with a calm expression, having his headphones in his ears. Most of all the members of the Clave had their eyes on him; since he received the praise of Ithuriel and called him Messiah.

Charlotte walked with her back straight, her cheeks red and looking straight ahead, as if she did not hear the murmurs. Will seemed about to throw himself at the whisperers to administer justice with punches, but Jem had him firmly gripped his parabatai firmly by the jacket. Being Jem, thought Tesa, must have been much like being the owner of a dog of the breed who likes to bite the guests. You had to have a hand constantly on your necklace. Jessamine came back looking bored. What happened at the meeting was something never seen before, but being trained seemed annoying.

When they reached the doors of the Council room, they were almost running. Charlotte stopped for a moment for the rest of the group to reach her. Most of the people were on the left, where Tessa, Jem, and Will had come, but Charlotte went to the right, took several steps down the corridor, turned a corner, and stopped abruptly.

"Charlotte?" Henry, who reached his height, seemed worried. "Dear..."

Without warning, Charlotte kicked her foot back and kicked the wall with all her strength. As this one was made of stone, kick caused some damage; Even so, he let out a low growl.

"Oh, wow," Jessamine exclaimed, as she turned her parasol around.

"If you allow me a suggestion," Will interjected. "Twenty steps back, in the Council room, is Benedict, if you want to go and try to kick him, I would recommend pointing up and a little to the left ..."

"Charlotte." The deep, deep voice was very recognizable.

She turned around, surprised.

It was the Consul and the blue-haired boy. The runes embroidered in silver thread on the sleeves and the hem of her cape gleamed as he approached the small group of the Institute, his eyes fixed on her. With one hand resting on the wall, it did not move.

"Charlotte," Wayland Consul repeated, "you know what your father always said about losing his temper"

"He said that, and he also said that he should have had a child," he replied bitterly. "If it had been like that, if I were a man, would you have treated me like you just did?"

Henry put a hand on his shoulder on his wife's shoulder, muttering something, but she pulled away. His big brown eyes were fixed on the Consul, then on the strange looking boy.

"How can we help young Arisato?"

"Ah, I was going to say," Wayland replied. "He wants to give the pendant to miss Gray"

Minato raised with his left hand, had the mechanical angel; the prison of Ithuriel.

"T-Thank you," said Tessa timidly, politely accepting to return her necklace.

"Young Arisato" commented Wayland like an old man surprised by his grandson. "You have some gifts that surprise us, it's the first time I see Cu Chulainn doing my tricks with Gae Bolg, not counting the appearance of the Angel of Contracts and the release of an angel caught in the pendant of the Miss Gray, you did silence the Council "

Minato shrugged nonchalantly, keeping his face reserved.

Wayland Consul laughed aloud.

"Heavens, young man, if you're a mystery, are you a witch? I'm saying it for your hair"

Minato shook his head.

"It's natural"

"But, are you a witch?"

"No, I'm just human"

That made the Consul and the members of the Institute surprised.

"Really?" said Charlotte.

The boy nodded.

"B-But, no human can have a power like casting spells or manifesting an ancient hero and archangel of Heaven." Will was surprised.

"Also, just by hitting a shot with that gun, can you summon them?" Henry asked with impatience curiosity.

He nodded again.

"I can see?"

Minato handed his Evoker to Henry, who was curious, just as those present were curious; It was not like any other weapon they had seen; It was silver, stamped with the name S.E.E.S, where below the name of the initials of the first letters could be read.

"Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad" read Henry. All eyes turned to Minato. "Is the organization where this was done?"

The boy nodded.

All were left with the mouths up.

"And this blue, on the edges of the handle?" Wayland wanted to know, he was still intrigued by a weapon that only mundanes use, but what he saw was something more advanced.

"It allows to generate an effect to generate the shot, the appearance of a blue smoke" answered without detours.

"As you did with Cu Chulainn and Metatron, right?" Will could not stop being nervous.

Another nod

Wayland examined the weapon.

"But it's very risky for a young man like you to use this, you just need to have the cannon in your hundred, and is that done?"

"You need to accept death," Minato announced, capturing all the attention. "The only way to do it is to accept death in a less scared way, as it represents a reminder of the mortality and destiny of your own life.

All were pale as ghosts. The Consul handed it to him.

"So," Charlotte replied, swallowing. "You just need to accept death as a friend, then you summon?"

Minato nodded.

"You are not afraid?" said Jem.

He shook his head at his response.

"I do not doubt, I accept," Minato said frankly. Surprising even more the nefilims.

Will did not like losing his parabatai's life, the mere thought of accepting Jem's death sent shivers down his spine.

"You're crazy," Jessamine commented, only to receive a shrug.

"There is another thing," commented Tessa. "Metatron told you Messiah ... does that mean you're a kind of savior? How Jesus?"

"Something like that" he said with another indifferent shrug, making everyone in shock. Minato looked at Wayland. "Consul Wayland, were not you going to talk to Charlotte about something important?"

"What?" replied the Consul, then he remembered: "Ah, right, true, thank you, lad, you will see Charlotte, the reason why I appointed you as director of the Institute and the Enclave, not only because I appreciated Granville Fairchild and knew that he wanted that his daughter succeeded him, but because he thought you would do a good job "

"You also named Henry," she said. "And you even told us in doing it that it was because the Enclave would accept a marriage as its leaders, but not a single woman"

Many of his female Minato people agreed with her.

"Well, congratulations, Charlotte, it seems to me that no member of the London Enclave has the feeling that Henry directs them at all"

"That's true" Henry admitted, looking at the ground." Everyone knows I'm pretty useless. All that has happened has been my fault, Consul ... "

"It's not true," Wayland Consul admitted. "It was a combination of general complacency on the part of the Clave, bad luck and bad timing, and some decisions that were not very accurate on your part, Charlotte, yes, I consider you responsible for them ..."

"So you agree with Benedict!" exclaimed Charlotte.

"Benedict Lightwood is a scoundrel and a hypocrite," the Consul acknowledged, annoyed. "Everyone knows it, but with the appearance of Metatron on imposing respect towards you, he thought it was an opportunity to register his children to favor his name in politics, and it is better to calm him down with this montage than to antagonize him more by not making him no case"

"A montage? Is that what you call it?" asked Charlotte bitterly. "You have imposed an impossible task"

"No, I would not say an impossible task," replied the Consul. "We have had enough evidence that Mortmain is a threat to us, he entered the Institute, he killed your servants, he took the Pyxis and he plans to build an army of mechanical monsters to destroy all of us, in short, a man who has to As the leader of the Enclave, Charlotte, stopping him is your obligation, and you have enough time, conceived by the archangel who acts as emissary of God's words, and his summoner, do not you think so, Minato Arisato? " smiled the Consul.

Minato moaned and shook his head.

Everything was going to be a long work in Victorian England.

* * *

 **Good guys, eh finished with the chapter of this story, the next I upload.**

 **In addition, with the appearance of Minato, there is a possibility that there are changes to the plot of the trilogy of the Victorian era.**

 **A greeting. Do not forget to comment.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello for every man, this is the next episode of this Persona story with Infernal's Turtle.**

 **For the following chapters, adaptations, which include the Minato Pesonas. Incorporate concepts by Amal Multiverse from Shin Megami Tensei.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

When Minato Arisato was transported to Victorian England, there was a reason why he did it, since he was the representation of salvation, an opportunity for a homeless; the Messiah.

After having separated his physical body to use his soul for the Great Seal, he felt himself to be in a relaxing sea, he could feel the vibrations and sensations of the world where he was; a dimension apart from his own world, one in which his astral body was connected to space and the universe. Since he had created a Joker that allowed him to defeat the Nyx Avatar; the Universe, an invisible and present force in every corner and in the surroundings. He was able to feel the energy of the Universe, an energy that had been present in the days of creation.

But somehow, his role as savior was not over.

Somehow, I had felt a sensation in space and time, a sensation that was not only a universe, but a multitude of multiverses that composed it. It was like being in a huge fish tank with many different types of fish. Minato could feel the enormous amount of energy and living beings, since the Arcane Universe allowed him to access the power of the Universe, but it also allowed him to expand his mind and his astral body through the huge sea from a different plane. Until he ran into someone he knew.

The unknown individual presented himself as Philemon; the incarnation of salvation, and also, the creator of the Velvet Room; Master of Igor and the Assistants. But not only was he, but there was another. Philemon explained that he had been summoned by the Great Will; the ascending and creative force of the Messiah, whose task is to safeguard and maintain order among the universes.

Older known as the Axium, he explained to Minato that his role as Messiah of the Great Seal had not ended, since by being connected to the multiverse, he could be connected to the call for help in a more remote direction. In them, there was a world where angels, demons, and beings of diverse folklore of different cultures exist.

The Axium explained that it was a world where its essence had allowed the creation of various deities and supernatural beings exist. He also explained that this Land set in the Victorian era of London was abitado by guardians known like the hunters of shades, whose work is to protect the world of the humans against demons of other dimensions that had acceded by means of the use of rips between dimensions, or by the use of doors invocation by dark cults.

Philemon told him that in that world there are angels and demons, but he did not have to worry, since there was a YHVH copy, but it is different from his other dark copies and egolatras.

His main mission, was to prevent a man with anxiety of revenge called Axel Mortmain manufacture an army of mechanical automata dominate that world and achieve knowledge about the Multiverse of Amala.

Both Philemon and Axium explained that he will only be teleported using only his piece of soul, which would replace his physical body that was in his universe.

Being a nonjudgmental person, he accepted to start his mission as the Messiah.

* * *

The magical light that illuminated the Great Library seemed to burn with little intensity, like a candle dripping on its candlestick, although Tessa knew that it was only her imagination. The magic light, unlike fire or gas, never seemed to diminish or exhaust itself.

On the other hand, her eyes were beginning to tire, and because of the appearance of her companions, she was not the only one that happened to her. They were all sitting around one of the long tables, with Charlotte at the head, and Henry and Tessa on the right. Will and Jem were a little beyond, side by side; Minato was sitting in a chair, leafing through an old book about the science of alchemy, and Jessamine had placed himself on the other side of the table, away from the others. The surface of the table was completely covered with papers of all kinds: old newspaper articles, books, parchments covered with a fine, slanted letter. There were genealogies of several Mortmain families, stories of automatons, innumerable books of spells to invoke and possess, and even the latest data on the Pandemonium Club that the Silent Brothers had managed to unearth from their archives.

Tessa had been assigned the task of reading the newspaper articles, looking for stories about Mortmain and his shipping company, and it was beginning to cloud his sight; the words danced on the page. She was relieved when Jessamine broke the silence, as she pushed aside the book she had been reading: _On the motors of sorcery_.

"Charlotte" said, "I think we're wasting our time"

She looked at him with a pained expression.

"Jessamine, it is not necessary for you to stay if you do not want it, I have to say that I doubt that any of us expected your help in this matter, and since you have never applied much to your studies, I can not help but wonder if you at least know what you're looking for, could you tell a summoning spell from a holding spell if I put them in front of you? "

Tessa could not help but be surprised. Charlotte was rarely so severe with any of them. Minato was reminded of Mitsuru's attitude.

"Yes, I want to help," said Jessamine, in a bad mood. "Those mechanical things from Mortmain almost killed me. I want to be caught and punished."

"No, you do not want to," Will contradicted, as he unrolled a parchment so old that it creaked, and watched the black symbols he had drawn, squinting. "You want them to catch and punish Tessa's brother for making you believe that he was falling in love with you when he was lying"

Jessamine blushed.

"It's not that, I mean, I do not ... It's just ... Agg! Charlotte, Will is messing with me.

"And the sun rises in the east," Jem said to Minato, who shook his head.

"At least we have a lot of time, right?" As we witnessed as Minato Arisato summoned one of the archangels of Heaven in front of all of us, not to mention that he took out an imprisoned angel from Tessa's pendant - enough proof for us to have more time to find it"

Everyone remembered that event happened on the stand. It was a moment never before seen in the history of shadowhunters: the appearance of a powerful archangel and a minor angel imprisoned by the adoptive parents of Mortmain.

For Tessa it was like turning around one hundred and eighty degrees; she thought it was a magic pendant that worked as her guardian, but with the revelation that it served as the prison of an angel of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that her mother had been a shadow hunter without realizing it by Mortmain himself to carry he carried out his revenge, in addition that Magíster himself summoned a demon of Eidolon to fertilize his mother; creating a hybrid never seen before. Everything had been stressful for her.

"At least we should be happy, and so are you, Jessamine ... Imagine, if we had not had all the information given by the angel Ithuriel in the Council, they would kick Charlotte out and put the Lightwoods as the owners of the Institute. Let Benedict marry you to one of his two children, you should be grateful, "Will released.

Jessamine grimaced.

"Shadowhunters, as if I were going to want to marry one of them ..."

"Jessamine, you are one of them"

Before Jessamine could answer it, the door to the library opened and Sophie entered, tilting her head in a white cap. He said something in a low voice to Charlotte, who stood up.

"Brother Enoch is here," she informed the group. "I have to talk to him, Will, Jessamine, try not to kill yourself while I'm gone, Henry, if you could ..."

He left the sentence half-hearted. Henry was looking at a book: _The book of knowledge of the ingenious mechanics_ , by Al-Jaziri, and he paid no attention to anything else. His wife raised her hands to heaven and left the room with Sophie.

As for the door closed behind the director, Jessamine shot Will a murderous look.

"If you think I do not have the necessary experience to be able to help, then what about him?" He pointed to Minato. "I do not want to be rude, but do you think he can differentiate an invocation spell from a subjection?" He looked at Minato. "What? Can you?" He nodded. "Well, what would it be?"

"A holding spell allows you to implement a magical loop to a magical or non-magical user to use as a servant, whereas an invocation spell is only made through a pact with an entity from another dimension, or using a circle with runes so that it does not that entity should come out and cause havoc, that's all, "Minato finished in a calm and neutral voice.

Everyone was surprised by Minato's explanation, including Henry, who stopped reading his book.

Jessamine congratulated him.

"That's what he called acquiring a good knowledge of spells, Will you pay so much attention in class that you can differentiate a binding spell from a soufflé recipe?"

The alluded one back of the chair.

" _I am not crazy, more than when it blows to the northeast, but when it runs south I can distinguish very well an egg from a chestnut tree,_ " he quoted.

"Jessamine, Tessa and Minato have kindly offered to help us, and at that moment we need all eyes that we can have" explained Jem very seriously. "Will not quote _Hamlet_ , Henry, your wife is with the Silent Brothers, she wants you to help us"

"Very understood," said Henry affirmatively.

"Also, I think Jessamine is absolutely right"

"And the sun rises in the west," Will replied, making a comment that Jem made.

"I also agree with Jessamine," Tessa replied. "Since we all know what Mortmain wants with us, but she also wants us to dig a little deeper into her private life"

"I'm not saying we're wasting our time." Besides, Tessa is right about what Charlotte said, we can know what Mortmain is planning, but we need a little more evidence to know if she has any allies or a hiding place.

"Well, we already know Mortmain's past, and his plans," Will replied, and gestured to the newspapers. "Born in Devon, he was a surgeon on a ship, he became a wealthy merchant, he ended up mixing with black magic things and now he plans to run the world by weakening his huge army of mechanical creatures. murdered his adoptive family, and that Tessa is the great granddaughter of Aloysius Starkweather and product of a Mortmain experiment to create a new race to dominate the world. "He gestured towards Minato. "All thanks to you, Messiah"

The blue-haired boy shook his head at Will's sarcasm.

"I think he never said anything about dominating the world," interrupted Tessa. "Only the British Empire"

"Admirably literal," Will said. "But what I wanted to say is that we know where Mortmain comes from and his plan to exterminate us because of his childhood trauma due to the death of his adoptive parents"

"Compensation," Jem said suddenly as he put down the pen he held in his hands.

Will looked at him confused.

"Is it a game? Do we let go of the first word that comes to mind? In that case, mine is genufobia, it means an irrational fear of the knees."

"And what's the word for a perfectly irrational fear of annoying idiots?" Jessamine asked.

"The Compensation section of the archives" continued Jem, ignoring neither of them. "The Consul mentioned it yesterday, and I have not taken it off my head since then, we have not looked there"

"Compensations?" Tessa asked.

"When a downworlder, or a mundane, alleges that a shadowhunter has violated the Law by dealing with it, the downwolder files a complaint through Compensations, there is a trial, and the subway is granted some kind of payment, in if he can prove he is right "

"Well, it seems a bit silly to look there," said Will. "Mortmain will not file any complaints against shadowhunters through the official channels: V _ery upset that shadowhunters refused to die when I wanted to, I demand compensation, please send a check to A. Mortmain, Kensington Road 18_ "

"No more jokes" Jem interjected." It may be possible that Mortmain has requested compensation after the death of the sorcerers who took care of him, by not getting any help from the system, that affected him even more in his anxiety of revenge against the Shadowhunters. "He stood up and brushed back his silver hair." I'm going to catch Charlotte before Brother Enoch leaves and tell him to ask the Silent Brothers to check the files"

Tessa got up from her chair. She did not want to be alone in the library with Will and Jessamine, who, no doubt, were going to argue. Of course, Henry was there, but apparently he was lying on a pile of books, and even in the best of cases, it would not do much good. Minato was busy reading the book that was in his hands, the boy was quiet and reserved, whose silver eyes flashed a brightness like his blue hair, highlighting his features. Being close to Will was almost always uncomfortable; it was only bearable with Jem. Somehow, Jem was able to limit Will's rough edges and make him almost human.

"I'm going with you, Jem," he said. "Also, there's ... there's something I want to talk to Charlotte about"

Jem seemed pleasantly surprised; Will looked from one to the other and pulled the chair back.

"We've been among moldy books for days," he proclaimed. "My beautiful eyes are tired, and I have paper cuts in my hands. He extended his fingers. "I'm going for a walk"

"Maybe you could use an iratze to cure them" Tessa said without being able to contain herself.

Will looked at her annoyed. Yes, he had beautiful eyes.

"Helpful as always and on every occasion, Tessa"

She returned his gaze.

"My only wish is to help"

Jem put Will's hand on his shoulder.

"Tessa, Will, I do not think ..." he began in a worried voice.

But the boy was already leaving; He took the jacket and left the library slammed the door with such force that the door frame vibrated.

Jessamine leaned back in her chair and narrowed her brown eyes. He looked at Minato.

"How interesting," he said, while the blue haired boy shrugged.

Tessa's hands trembled as she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. He did not like anything that Will caused that effect. I hated it. I knew it was nonsense. He knew what he thought of her. That it was nothing, that it was worth nothing. Even so, a look from him could make her tremble with a mixture of hate and longing. It was like poison in the veins, and Jem was the only antidote. Only with him did he feel on solid ground.

"Come on," Jem said, and took her arm gently.

A gentleman would not touch a lady in public, but at the Institute, shadowhunters had a more familiar relationship with each other than the mundane outsiders. When she turned to look at him, Jem smiled at her. "He put everything of himself in every smile; He seemed to smile with his eyes, with his heart, with his whole being.

"Let's find Charlotte"

"And what am I supposed to do while they're gone?" Jessamine asked, annoyed, as they made their way to the door.

Jem looked at her, turning his head.

"You can always wake Henry up, it seems like he's eating paper again, and you know how little Charlotte likes that, and Minato, so he can keep you company."

"What a bore!" exclaimed Jessamine with a sigh of exasperation. "Why do I always have to do silly things?"

"Because you do not want to do important things," replied Jem, who sounded the closest thing to irritated Tessa had ever heard him. None of them noticed the cold look Jessamine gave them as they left the library.

Jessamine let out a frustrated sigh.

"Is incredible!" she answered with a start. She looked at Minato, who was reading. "It seems that you took things slowly," she replied, making the boy nod.

She looked directly at him; all his features made him look like a mysterious and intriguing boy, and at the same time cute.

* * *

"Mr. Bane was waiting for your arrival, sir," said the servant, and moved away to allow Will to enter. The servant's name was Archer, or Walker, or something, the shadowhunter thought, and was one of Camille's human servants. Like all those who were subject to the will of a vampire, he looked sickly, with a pale, parchment-like skin and fine, greasy hair. He seemed so happy to see Will as a diner at a dinner could be to see a worm crawl out from under the lettuce on his plate.

As soon as Will entered the house, the smell shocked him. It was the smell of dark magic, like sulfur mixed with the Thames on a hot day. Will wrinkled his nose. The servant looked at him even more depreciated.

"Mr. Bane is in the room." His voice indicated that there was no chance he would accompany Will there. "Do you give me your coat?

"It will not be necessary," Will replied.

With the garment on, Will followed the smell of magic down the hall. It intensified as he approached the door of the room, which was well closed. Smokes of smoke came out of the crack under the door. Will took a deep breath of the acrid air and opened it.

The interior of the room seemed curiously clear. After a moment, Wll realized that it was because Magnus had taken all the heavy teak furniture, including the piano, and put them against the walls. An elegant gas lamp hung from the ceiling, but the lighting in the room came from dozens of thick black candles placed in a circle in the center of the room. Magnus was standing next to the circle, with an open book in his hands; The old-fashioned scarf on his neck had loosened, and his dark hair was curled around his face, as if it had been charged with static electricity. He looked up when Will came in and smiled at him.

"Just in time!" he exclaimed. "I'm convinced we've done it this time, Will, I'll introduce you to Thammuz, a minor demon of the eighth dimension, Thammuz, this is Will, a shadowhunter younger of... Wales, right?"

"I'll take your eyes out," hissed the creature that was sitting in the center of the fiery circle. No doubt it was a demon, no more than a meter tall, with pale blue skin, three eyes as hot and black as pitch, and long claws of blood red in the hands of eight fingers. "I will tear the skin from your face"

"Do not be rude, Thammuz" Magnus scolded, and although his tone was light, suddenly the circle of candles threw long, bright flares upward, which caused the demon to curl up on itself with a scream. "Will have questions, you will answer them"

"Will shook his head.

"I do not know, Magnus," he hesitated. "I do not think this is it"

"You said it was blue, this one is blue"

"It's blue," the nephilim acknowledged, and moved closer to the circle of flames. "But the demon I need... Well, it was cobalt blue, this one is more... liliaceous"

"What did you call me?" the demon roared furiously. "Come closer, shadowhunter from three to four, and let me give you my liver! I'll tear it out of your body while you scream"

Will looked at Magnus.

"It also does not sound like it should, the voice is different, and the number of eyes"

"Are you sure about...?"

"Totally safe," Will answered in a voice that did not allow contradiction. "It's not something I'm going to forget, or I can do it"

Magnus sighed and turned to the demon.

"Thammuz" he said, reading aloud from the book, "I tell you, by the power of the bell, the book and the candle, and by the great names of Sammael, Abbadon and Molock, to tell you the truth. Have you ever met shadowhunter Will Herondale before today, or any of your blood or bloodline? "

"I do not know" the devil replied, petulant. "All humans are equal"

Answer me! "Magnus' voice rose dry and authoritative.

"Oh, very good, no, I've never seen it before, I'd remember it, it looks like it tastes good" Thammuz put on a wry smile, showing the sharp teeth. "I have not been in this world for ... oh, a hundred years, maybe more ... I never remember the difference between a hundred and a thousand." Anyway, the last time I was here, all the people lived in mud huts and he ate worms, so I doubt he was around here "he pointed at Will with a knuckle finger," if they were not terrestrial, they lived much longer than I was led to believe.

Magnus rolled his eyes.

"I see you're saying not to help anything, right?"

The demon shrugged, a human gesture.

"There is also something else: when you were going to summon me, I felt like a kind of celestial energy, a much greater and more powerful energy"

Magnus raised his eyebrow.

"Hmmm, what you say, I felt it too"

"Oh, you mean the invocation of Metatron in the Council room" Will replied

Magnus and Thammuz stared at him, petrified. Especially the devil, who was trembling.

"Y-y-you said M-Metatron" the demon stammered with fear.

"Just a moment!" Magnus said, processing what Will said. "Are you telling me someone called the representative of God?"

"Yes," said Will. "He was a dark blue haired boy with a strange dress"

Magnus's feline eyes widened.

"B-but-but it's impossible!" Magnus had no words. It was impossible for a sorcerer to be able to summon one of the powerful archangels of Heaven, Metatron being the most powerful of them.

"Well, yes, I and the rest of the Institute witnessed it, as well as the appearance of Cu Chulainn when the automatons of Mortamin invaded us, and also including the release of an angel from Heaven enclosed in Tessa's pendant to work as his guardian, "Will said.

Magnus and the demon were speechless.

During a moment of silence, Will decided to change the subject.

"Well, that's true, even he might be able to find the devil I've described to you, dark blue, with a raspy voice, like sandpaper ... And with a long, spiked tail"

Thammuz looked at him with a bored expression.

"Do you have any idea how many kinds of demons there are in the Void, Nephilim? Hundreds and Hundreds of Millions. Pandemonium's great demon city makes his city of London look like a of all shapes, sizes and colors. change aspect at will... "

"Oh, then shut up if you're not going to help anything" Magnus replied, and closed the book with a bang. Instantly, the candles went out, and the demon vanished with a cry of surprise, leaving behind only tendrils of foul-smelling smoke.

The warlock looked at Will.

"I was convinced that this time I had found the good guy"

"It's not your fault." Will threw himself on one of the couches leaning against the wall. He was hot and cold at the same time, and nerves tickled him with a disappointment that he was trying to swallow without much success. Restless, he took off his gloves and put them in his coat pocket, which he still wore. "You try, Thammuz was right, I have not given you much to work with"

"I suppose" Magnus said, "you've told me everything you remember." "You opened the Pyxis and released a demon." "He cursed you." "You want me to find that demon and see if you get the curse out." Is that all you can tell me? "

"It's all I can tell you" confessed Will. "It would not do me any good to keep information unnecessarily, when I know what I'm asking you to do, find me a needle in a ... God, not even in a haystack ... A needle in a tower full of needles"

"Put your hand in a needle tower" replied Magnus, "and most likely you will be very punctual." Are you sure this is what you want? "

"I'm sure the alternative is worse," Will said as he looked at the blackened spot on the ground where the demon had been. He felt exhausted. The rune of energy he had put on that morning before leaving for the Clave meeting had lost its strength at noon, and his head throbbed. "I have lived with this for five years, the idea of living like this even if it is one more scares me more the idea of death"

"You are a shadowhunter; you do not fear death"

"Of course," Will replied. "Everyone is afraid of death, perhaps we were born of angels, but we have no idea what you have after you"

Magnus approached him and sat on the opposite side of the couch. His golden-green eyes shone like those of a cat in the dim light.

"You do not know if there is only nothing after death"

"Neither do you know that there is not, right?" Jem believes that we are all reborn, that life is a wheel, even Glas said that the only option to invoke is to accept death in a benevolent way. how we deserve to be reborn, according to what we have done in this world. "Will looked at his fingernails. "Surely, I will accept death and be reborn as a slug someone throws salt at"

"The Wheel of Transmigration," said Magnus. He smiled "Well, look at it like that, you must have done something good in your last life to be reborn as you are. "Nephilim"

"Oh, yes" Will acknowledged in a neutral tone. · "I have been very lucky" He rested his head on the couch, exhausted. "I guess you'll need more... ingredients, it seems to me that old Mol from Cross Bones must be fed up with me"

"I have other contacts," Magnus explained, clearly feeling sorry for him, "and before I need to investigate further, if you could tell me what the curse is ..."

"No." Will sat up suddenly. "I can not, I've told you before, I've even run a big risk talking about your existence, if I explained more..."

"So what? Let me guess, you do not know, but you're sure it would be bad"

"Do not make me start thinking that I've made a mistake by resorting to you..."

"That has to do with Tessa, right?"

For the past five years, Will had trained himself not to show his emotions: surprise, affection, hope, joy... He was convinced that his expression had not changed, even Minato was able to maintain a profile focused on expressing no emotion.

"Tessa?"

"Five years have passed," Magnus continued. "However, somehow you've managed to spend all this time without telling anyone, what kind of despair brought you to me, in the middle of the night under a storm, what has changed at the Institute? thing, and pretty pretty, with big gray eyes ... "

Will stood up with such brusqueness that he almost knocked over the long, cushioned seat.

"There are other things," he said, trying not to show anything in his voice. "Jem is dying"

Magnus looked at him coldly.

"He's been dying for five years," he replied. "No curse you have can aggravate or improve your condition"

Will realized that his hands were shaking; he clenched his fists.

"You do not understand it..."

"I know you are parabatai" admitted the witcher. "I know his death will be a great loss to you, but what I do not know ..."

"You know what you need to know." Will felt cold, although the room was hot and he was wearing his coat. "I'll pay you more, if that stops you from asking me questions"

Magnus put his feet on the couch.

"Nothing will stop me from asking you questions" he confessed, "But I will do what I can to respect your reservation"

Relief relaxed Will's hands.

"Then, you will continue to help me"

"I'll keep on helping you." Magnus put his hands behind his head and leaned back, looking at Will with narrowed eyes. "Even though I could help you more if you told me the truth, I'll do what I can. I find it interestingly interesting, Will Herondale."

He shrugged.

"That's enough reason, when do you plan to try again?"

Magnus yawned.

"Surely, this weekend, I'll send you a message on Saturday if there's ... news"

 _'News. Damn. Truth, Jem. Die. Tessa. Tessa. Tessa'_

His name rumbled in Will's head like a bell; he wondered if any other name on earth would have such a persistent resonance. I could not have had an ugly name, right? Something like Mildred. He could not imagine spending the nights awake, staring at the ceiling while invisible voices whispered _'Mildred'_ in his ear. But _'Tessa'_ ...

"Thanks," he replied sharply. He had gone from being cold to being hot; the room was oppressive, even with the smell of burned wax. "Then I'll wait anxiously for your news"

"Yes, okay," agreed Magnus, and closed his eyes.

Will could not tell if the sorcerer was really sleeping or just waiting for him to leave; in one way or another, it was evident that he wanted her to leave. Finally, not without some relief, he did.

* * *

Sophie was heading to Miss Jessamine's room to remove the ashes and clean the grate from the fireplace, when she heard voices in the hallway. In the house where he had worked before, he had been taught to make places: turn around and look at the wall when his knights were passing, and do everything possible to look like a piece of furniture, something inanimate that they could ignore.

When he went to the Institute, he stopped to see that things did not work there. First, to be such a big house, he was surprised to have so little service. At first, he did not realize that the shadowhunters did many things that a typical family of good births would consider not to correspond to their high status: the fire was on, they were part of the purchase, they kept the rooms clean and tidy. training and weapons ... He had been surprised by the familiarity with which Thomas and Agatha treated their masters, without thinking that their service partners came from families that had been serving the shadowhunters for generations, or that they had legal powers. the magic

She came from a poor family, had been called _"stupid"_ and was often slapped at the beginning of working as a servant, because she was not used to delicate furniture or real silver, nor to the fine porcelain that could be seen. Dark tea against the light. However, she had learned, and when it became clear that she was going to be very pretty, she had been promoted to chambermaid. This occupation was precarious. It was supposed to be pretty for those who were in the house and, therefore, her salary decreased with each year she served after eighteen.

Going to the Institute had been a great relief: they did not take into account that he was almost twenty years old, nobody demanded that he look at the wall and nobody showed him his distaste for speaking without having addressed before, that he almost thought it was worth the disfigurement that He had suffered in his beautiful face at the hands of his last lord. He still avoided looking in the mirror, but the horrible sense of loss was gone. Jessamine mocked her for the long scar on her cheek, but the others did not seem to notice, except Will, who once said something unpleasant, but mechanically, as if, instead of saying it from the heart, he did. Because that was what was expected of him.

But all that was before he fell in love with Jem.

At that moment he recognized that his voice was advancing down the hall, laughing; and Miss Tessa was answering him. Sophie felt a slight pressure in her chest. Jealousy. He despised himself for it, but he could not help it. Miss Tessa had always been kind to her, and there was a huge vulnerability in her huge gray eyes ... so much need for a friend ... it was impossible to despise her. Still, the way Mr. Jem looked at her ... and Tessa did not seem to notice.

No. Sophie could not help but find them both in the hallway, with Jem staring at Tessa as she did lately. With the broom and bucket against her chest, Sophie opened the nearest door, entered and adjusted it to her back, leaving a small indentation. Like most of the Institute's rooms, this was a bedroom not used for Shadowhunters, but now it was occupied by the boy with dark blue hair and gray eyes. Sophie suppressed a sneeze when she pressed her face to look through the open crack of the door.

He had not been wrong. They were Jem and Tessa, coming towards her down the hall. They seemed totally focused on each other. Jemé has something, that I have worn folded clothes, Tessa and me too. She looked a little down and to the other side; He watched intensely, as one did when one thought that one was not observed. He had that expression on his face, the word for the general, most of the time when he played the violin, as if he were totally absorbed and enchanted.

Sophie felt a pain in her heart. She was so handsome ... He had always looked beautiful to her. Most people talk about Will, how attractive he was, but she thought Jem was a thousand times more handsome. Then there was the newcomer, Minato Arisato; a mysterious and reserved young man, an ability capable of summoning an Irish heroic figure in an unusual way. Gray eyes like those of Jem, cold and icy, not counting a calm and stoic expression that adorns the features. As for his hair, it was a dark blue, while that of Jemé was produced by the medicine that has been said not to die. Jem was a kind, noble and gentlemanly person, while Minato was mysterious, of few words, but kind. She feels tired.

"I can not believe they're coming tomorrow," Tessa was saying, turning back to Jem. "I have the feeling as if Sophie and I were thrown into Benedict Lightwood to calm him down, like a bone to a dog, he can not really care whether we're trained or not, he just wants his children to be in this house to annoy Charlotte."

"It's true" Jem acknowledged. "But why not take advantage of the training when they offer it to you? That's why Charlotte is trying to encourage Jessamine to take part in. As for you, given your origin and your talent, even if Mortmain is no longer a threat, I would say that there will be others who are attracted by your power, you better learn how to get rid of them "

Tessa put her hand on the mechanical angel that hung around her neck; A habitual gesture that he probably did not even notice, Sophie thought.

"I know what Jessie would say, I would say the only thing she needed to learn to get rid of is her many attractive earrings"

"Did not he prefer to learn to get rid of those that are not attractive?"

"Not if they are worldly" Tessa replied with a mischievous smile. "Prefers an ugly mundane that an attractive shadowhunter"

"That totally knocks me out, right?" Jem joked with an expression of feigned disappointment, and Tessa laughed again.

"It's a shame" he lamented afterwards. "Any girl as pretty as Jessamine should be able to choose, but she's so stubborn that a shadowhunter does not serve her ..."

"You're so much prettier," Jem interrupted.

Tessa looked at him surprised, and blushed. Sophie felt a twinge of jealousy in her chest again, although she agreed with Jem. Jessamine was pretty in a traditional way, a pocket Venus, to call it somehow, but her usual sour expression detracted from her charm. In contrast, Tessa had a warm appeal, with thick dark wavy hair, and sea-gray eyes that grew on you the more you knew her. There was intelligence in his face, and humor, what Jessamine did not have, or at least did not show.

Jem stopped at Miss Jessamine's door and knocked. When he did not get an answer, he shrugged, bent down, and placed the dark cloth in front of the door.

"He will never wear it," Tessa said, and dimples formed when he smiled. "

Jem sat up.

"I have not committed myself to force her into those clothes, only to give them to her"

He walked back down the hall, with Tessa at his side.

"I do not know how Charlotte can handle talking to Brother Enoch so often, it gives me the creeps," she said.

"Oh, I do not know, I'd rather think that when they're home, the Silent Brothers look a lot like us, making jokes in the Silent City, preparing toast..."

"I hope they play mimicry," ironized Tessa. "So they could take advantage of their natural talent"

Jem laughed, and then they turned the corner of the corridor and they were out of sight. Sophie slumped against the door frame. He did not think he had made Jem laugh like that; I did not think anyone had done it except Will. You had to know someone very well to make him laugh like that. She thought I had been in love with him for a long time. How was it that I did not know him at all?

With a sigh of resignation, he prepared to leave his hiding place; At that precise moment the door to Miss Jessamine's bedroom opened and her occupant emerged. Sophie sank back into the shadows. The young woman wore a long velvet travel cloak, which covered most of her body, from her neck to her feet. She had her hair pulled back, and in one hand she wore a man's hat. Sophie froze in surprise when Jessamine looked down, saw the clothes at her feet and grimaced. He kicked her into the room, which allowed Sophie to see that she was wearing hombrw boots, and closed the door quietly. He looked from one side of the hall to the other, put his hat on his head, pulled his cloak under his cloak, and slipped away into the shadows, leaving Sophie staring at her in bewilderment.

* * *

 **Well, guys. All critics are welcome. I hope you liked this chapter.**

 **In addition, the incorporation of the Multiverse of Amala to the saga of shadow hunters was very interesting in this chapter, as well as the appearance of Philemon and the Great Will or the Axium.**

 **As for the YHVH of the universe of shadow hunters, I am not sure that if I do it wise or bad; I'm going to think about it.**

 **A greeting.**


	3. Chapter 3

**We continue with this story. Here all comments are well received in this chapter.**

 **Possibility that there are changes to the plot; more or less.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **Remember that these two franchises belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

The next day, after breakfast, Charlotte told Tessa and Sophie to go back to their rooms, get dressed in their newly acquired uniform, and meet Jem in the training room, where they had to wait for the Lightwood brothers. Jessamine had not gone to breakfast, claiming a headache, and Will was not found anywhere either. Tessa suspected that he would be hiding, to avoid being forced to be kind to Gabriel Lightwood and his brother. She could only blame it in part. While Minato was busy with two of the round objects with wire in his ears, with his new uniform.

Back in her room, while picking up her uniform, Tessa noticed the nerves in her stomach; It was so different from everything she had worn before ... Sophie was not there to help her with the new clothes. Part of the training, of course, was to be able to dress and become familiar with the uniform: flat shoes, loose pants made of thick black material, and a long tunic up to the knees, which was fitted with a belt. It was the same clothes the shadow hunters used to hunt demons, since she carried her blood; a lineage of human half-angels to serve as the invisible guardians of humans. It was the same clothes that Charlotte had, and also seen in the Codex. Then it had seemed strange, but wearing it was even weirder. If Aunt Harriet could see her, Tessa thought, she would surely have fainted.

He met Sophie at the foot of the stairs that led to the Institute's training room. They did not exchange a word, just smiles of encouragement. After a moment, Tessa climbed in front of the stairs, a section of wood with rails so old that the wood had begun to splinter. It was strange, thought Tessa, climbing a ladder and not having to worry about grabbing her skirts so as not to step on the bass. Although her body was completely covered, she felt curiously naked in those training clothes.

It helped her to have Sophie by her side; it was evident that she was equally uncomfortable in her shadowhunter uniform. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Sophie opened the door and they entered the room quietly, together.

It was indisputable that they were at the top of the Institute, in a room adjacent to the attic, and almost double-sized. The floor was polished wood with several drawings scattered on its surface and made in black ink: circles, squares, some numbered. Long, flexible ropes hung from the great sloping roof rafters, only half visible in the shadows. Torches of magic light shone along the walls, alternating with hanging weapons: clubs and ax, all kinds of other objects with a lethal aspect.

"Phew!" Sophie exclaimed, and she shuddered when she looked at them. "Do not they seem the most horrible?"

"The truth is that I recognize a few Codex" commented Tessa pointing. "That one there is a long sword, and there is a rapier and a foil, and that one that seems that you need both hands to catch it is a broadsword, I think"

"Almost" said a voice, very disconcerting, over his head. "It's a executioner's sword, especially for beheadings, you can see it because it does not have a sharp point"

Sophie cried out in surprise and leaned back as one of the ropes began to move and a dark figure appeared above her head. It was Jem, descending the rope with graceful agility of a bird. He landed effortlessly before them and smiled.

"My apologies, we did not intend to scare them"

"Us?" Sophie said confused. When the second rope moved, who was no more than Minato Arisato, dressed in his new outfit consisting of a white shirt over a black sleeveless vest, combined with black pants and jet leather shoes. He greeted them with his hand, his calm expression still on his face.

"Minato?" Tessa replied confused.

"I made him come with me to show him the Institute and its rooms, I brought him here to see the training room, I even asked him to grab the rope and get down" Jem smiled at Minato. "It seems you took it easy, right?"

The blue haired boy nodded affirmatively.

"Yes, it has startled us," Tessa admitted with a slight smile, "but it's okay, I was beginning to think that you were going to leave Sophie and me here alone so that we could train each other"

"Oh, the Lightwoods will come soon" Jem explained. "They only arrive late to make it clear that they do not have to do what we tell them, or what their father tells them, but what happened in the Council, I doubt they are not as strict with us, but in their training"

"I wish you were the one to train us," Tessa said impulsively.

The boy seemed surprised.

"I could not... I have not finished my own training"

But when their eyes met, and in another moment of silent communication, Tessa heard what she was really saying: 'I'm not well enough often enough to be able to train them in a reliable way'

Suddenly, Tessa felt a lump in her throat, and looked Jem in the eyes, hoping that he could read in them his silent compassion. Minato witnessed what was happening. Both Tessa and Jem were involved in a kind of relationship problem, something normal that many are going through today. He knew perfectly well that Jem was weak from the illness he had, since he needed that drug to live. He thought about using some of his people to help him, but decided it was a meddling and decided to ask him if he wanted it or not. Besides, there was another contender in that affair, Will Herondale was there in that romance. Minato could only sigh, it seemed that everything was a kind of soap opera for adolescents, which was a witness of that.

"They will not do a full workout, right?" Sophie asked, and her worried voice interrupted Tessa's thoughts. "The Council only said that we needed to learn to defend ourselves a little..."

Jem looked away from Tessa; the connection snapped.

"There's nothing to be afraid of, Sophie," he replied in his affable voice. "And you'll be glad to do it, it's always useful for a pretty girl to get rid of the unwanted attentions of a gentleman"

The maid's face tensed, the scar on her cheek turned as red as if it had been painted.

"Do not make fun" she replied. "It's not funny"

Jem looked puzzled.

"Sophie, I did not mean..."

In that instant, the door to the training room opened. Tessa turned and saw Gabriel Lightwood entering the room, followed by a boy she did not know. While Gabriel was thin and dark-haired, the stranger was muscular and with thick straw-blond hair. Both were dressed in training uniform, and wore gloves with studs on the knuckles, which seemed very expensive. They both also sported silver ribbons on their wrists, which Tessa knew were knives for knives, and had the same elaborate rune design woven into the sleeves. Not only because of the similarity of her clothes, but because of the shape of her face and the light green eyes, it was clear that they were family, so Tessa was not surprised by what Gabriel said.

"Well, here we are, as we said" he stated with his usual parsimony. "James, I guess you remember my brother, Gideon, miss Gray, miss Collins ..."

"Nice to meet you" Gideon muttered without looking anyone in the eye. Bad manners seemed to be a family brand, and Tessa remembered that Will had told her that, compared to her brother, Gabriel was a love.

"Do not worry, Will is not here" Jem said to Gabriel, who was looking around the room. He looked at him with a frown, but with his eyes on Minato, he decided to leave. Jem spoke with Gideon. "When did you come back from Madrid?"

"Father has sent me back recently" Gideon's tone was neutral. "Family affairs" looked at the blue haired boy.

"So, is it he that all the rumors speak?"

"Yes" Jem replied with a tone cut. "This is Minato Arisato"

The blue-haired boy bowed, making Gideon do the same; a traditional gesture in Japan.

"I see" said Gideon, looking at him curiously.

Gabriel decided to return to the subject while clearing his throat.

"Now, before we start with the training part of this visit, there are two people who surely should know." He turned his head and knocked. "Mr. Tanner, miss Daly! Please, come on"

Footsteps were heard on the stairs and two strangers entered, none in uniform. Both were dressed as servants. One was a young woman who was the very definition of bony: the bones seemed too big for her slim and extreme form. His hair was a bright scarlet and he was wearing it in a bun under a modest hat. His hands were red, obviously as a result of a lot of scrubbing. Tessa guessed he was about twenty years old. Beside him was a young man with curly brown hair, tall and muscular...

Sophie swallowed hard. She turned pale.

"Thomas..."

The young man looked terribly uncomfortable.

"I'm Thomas' brother, miss. Cyril, Cyril Tanner."

"These are the substitutes for your lost servants that the Council promised them," said Gabriel. "Cyril Tanner and Bridget Daly, the Council asked us if we could bring them here from Kings Cross, and of course we will accept, Cyril will take the position of Tomas, and Bridget will replace Agatha, both of whom have been trained in good houses of Shadowhunters and come with very good recommendations "

Sophie had begun to burn red spots on her cheeks.

"For us, nobody can replace Thomas or Agatha, Gabriel," Jem admitted before Sophie could say anything. "They were friends as well as servants." He inclined his head towards Bridget and Cyril. "No intention to offend"

The girl blinked.

"We are not offended," said Cyril. Even in his voice it sounded like Thomas's; It was disturbing. "Thomas was my brother, nobody can replace him either"

There was a tense silence in the room. Minato understood those words. He remembered his former colleagues in his world, the friendships he had created and the camaraderie of working together. The loss of Shinjiro was a big blow for the whole group, but they managed to get ahead. S.E.E.S was more than a secret organization; they were family. Gideon leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and a slight frown on his face. Tessa thought he was quite handsome, like his brother, but that sign of disgust made him look bad.

"Very well," Gabriel finally said, breaking the silence. "Charlotte asked us to bring them so they could meet them, Jem, if you do not mind accompanying them back to the classroom, Charlotte is waiting for them there to give them instructions..."

"So neither of you needs extra training?" Jem asked. "How are you going to train Tessa and Sophie anyway, if Bridget or Cyril..."

"As the Council said, they have already been trained in a very appropriate way in their previous homes," Gideon replied. "Would you like a demonstration"

"I do not think it's necessary," Jem replied.

Gabriel smiled maliciously.

"Oh come on, Carstairs, girls will do well to see that a mundane can fight almost like a shadowhunter with the right instruction. Cyril?" He strode to the wall, selected two swords and threw one at the servant, who caught it deftly in the air and advanced to the center of the room, where there was a circle painted on the floor.

"We already know that," Sophie muttered, her voice so low that only Tessa could hear it. "Thomas and Agatha were trained"

"Gabriel is just trying to annoy you," Tessa told him, also in a whisper. "Do not let him see what bothers you"

"No, he does not," Minato commented after being silent, his voice was monotonous and hoarse. "Just try to prove the skills of the servants in battle. Look"

The two girls watched as Gabriel and Cyril were in the middle of the room, swords flashing.

Sophie had to admit that it was a pretty beautiful sight: the way they surrounded each other, the leaves cutting through the air, the glint of black and silver. The pealing of metal against metal; the way they moved, so fast that his gaze could hardly follow them. And, nevertheless, Gabriel was better; that was evident even to the untrained eye. His reflexes were faster, his movements more elegant. It was not a matched fight; Cyril, with his hair stuck to his forehead from the sweat, was doing his best, while the little one of the Lightwoods was only making time. In the end, when Gabriel quickly disarmed Cyril with a clean twist of the wrist, and sent Cyril's sword clanging against the floor, Tessa could not help feeling almost indignant at the servant. No human could overcome a shadowhunter. It was not that?

Minato observed that Gabriel's abilities in the art of sword fighting were very skillful, a trait developed by being a half-angel. But also his people were ready to give Gabriel a real fight with swords.

The tip of Gabriel's sword was on Cyril's neck. He raised his hands in a gesture of redemption; A smile, very similar to that of his brother, was drawn on his face.

"I give up..."

There was a confusing movement. Gabriel let out a growl, fell and the sword escaped from his hands. It hit the ground; Bridget was kneeling over him, showing her teeth. He had sneaked up behind her and tripped her when no one was looking at her. He pulled a small dagger from his bodice and put it on Gabriel's neck. He looked at her for a second, stunned, blinking. He laughed later.

Tessa fell better at that moment than ever before. Although that was not very difficult. While the People of Minato congratulated the servants.

"Very impressive" released a familiar voice from the door. Tessa turned towards it. It was Will, looking, as his story would have said, that a car had passed over. His shirt was torn, his hair was disheveled, and his eyes were red. He bent down, recognized Gabriel's sword and pointed it to Bridget with a funny expression. "But, do you know how to cook?"

The maid stood up quickly, her cheeks dyed dark red. I looked at Will as he always did the girls: a little open-mouthed, as if he did not quite believe the vision that had materialized before. Tessa would have liked to tell her that she was not even better upset and that they let her fascinate with her beauty was like being fascinated by a blade of sharp steel: dangerous in foolishness. But what good would it do? He would soon learn it alone.

"I'm a good cook, sir," Bridget replied with a singsong Irish accent. "My old gentlemen have no complaints"

"God, you're Irish," Will exclaimed. "We have already seen Cu Chulainn twice, and I also had an Irish maid when I was a child, she did all the dishes with potatoes, potato cake, cream of potatoes, potatoes with potato room ..."

Bridget became stunned, but the mention of the Irish hero of the Ulster Cycle that had been seen made her more surprised. Jem decided to escort the newcomer.

"Charlotte wants to see Cyril and Bridget in the room, do we show them where she is?"

He hesitated. At that moment I was looking at Tessa. She swallowed with a dry throat. It seemed that he wanted to tell her something, but I broke his gaze and turned to Minato.

"Wow, it looks like you decided to see how the girls trained, did not you, Glas?" He responded with a touch of sarcasm.

"I wanted to see what the Institute was like," Minato replied indifferently, shrugging his shoulders. "Jem guided me and showed me the training room"

"Yes, it's true" Jem said with a generous smile. "I decided to teach Minato where we trained, until I asked him to do exercises with the rope"

"Really?" He said that with one eyebrow raised, his blue eyes would rest on his face. "Can I say that you took it easy, did not you, Glas?"

He nodded.

"Silent and quiet, with that appearance, you are a magnet for the girls" A laugh will be published, then it will be added: "In all ways, do you plan in a place with your technique?" I say this so Gideon and the new servants are witnesses. Will was very anxious to see the faces of the Lightwood brothers and the newcomers before the invocation technique; It would be fun.

Minato nodded and pulled out his Evoker. He pressed the trigger and the dark blue smoke formed, and then I took the word in two meters and with a robust and toned body on the skin with the heads with sharp features, with a crown decorated with flames of fire. Dress a dark orange armor with white robes that adorn his waist and with bracelets on his six arms with sharp sabers in his hands. On his neck he wore jewelry and gold chains with glittering gems.

"I am Mahakala, the great darkness! I have been sent by my Master to teach them the use of sword fighting skills so that they can defend the innocent from the forces of evil! With pleasure teaching and the best wars among the Sons of Heaven!"

The entire training room was silent. The Lightwood brothers and newcomers to the open eyes like blinds. Jem scratched his head timidly and could not resist the urge to laugh. Tessa and Sophie swallowed nervously.

Gideon could not stop being nervous.

"Ésta es la idea más estúpida que nuestro padre ha tenido" he said with perfect spanish. "Nunca"

* * *

The following hours were spent doing balance and blocking exercises. Gabriel was in charge of supervising Tessa, while Gideon dedicated himself to Sophie. To then be trained by Mahakala as her using a sword and positions. For the Lightwood brothers it was the first time they had witnessed the summoning power of the dark blue haired Asian sorcerer, who surpassed the limits of the invocation. Gabriel had only seen him use this suicidal technique to summon the bearer of Gae Bolg and the scribe of God, but the invocation of one of the most powerful tibetan buddhist divinities in eastern culture had brought him to the limits of human sanity... Not counting the mention of the word Messiah that was said by the angel Ithuriel in the Council, which aroused doubts and interest in the witcher of blue hair.

Tessa could not help feeling that Gabriel had chosen her to annoy Will in some twisted way, whether he came to know it or not. Actually, he was not a bad instructor; patient enough, ready to pick up his guns again and again when they fell, until he could teach him how to catch them correctly, even praising her when she did something right, just as Mahalaka congratulated him when he started the lessons of attacks and how to repel an attack of the enemy. Being grateful for a divinity of buddhist culture is something that Tessa had never experienced in her life, never thought she could know a real one, it was like being in a fantasy dream. While Sophie, I could only hear Gideon mumble in spanish.

By the time they finished the training session, and Tessa had bathed and dressed for dinner, she was hungry to a point that was not at all feminine. For her part, despite Will's fears, Bridget did know how to cook, and very well. He served a roast with vegetables and a jam and cream pie to Henry, Will, Tessa, Minato and Jem. Jessamine was still in her room with a headache, and Charlotte had gone to Bone City to personally review the Compensation files.

It was strange to see the two servants entering and ascending the dining room with trays of food; to Cyril cutting the roast as Thomas would have done, to Sophie helping him in silence. Tessa could not help thinking how difficult it must be for the maid, since her companions in the Institute had been Thomas and Agatha; but whenever Tessa tried to look her in the eye, she looked away.

Tessa remembered the expression on Sophie's face the last time Jem had been sick, the way she twirled the cap in her hands, begging him to give her news of him. He had intended to talk to her later, but he had not been able to. The romances between worldlings and shadow hunters were forbidden; Will's mother was a worldly woman, and her father had been forced to separate from the Shadowhunters in order to be with her. He must have been very much in love to be willing to do it; Tessa had never had the feeling that Jem was interested in Sophie in that way, far from it. And then there was the matter of his illness ...

"Tessa," Jem called softly, "are you okay? You seem to be in another world.

She smiled at him.

"I'm tired, the training ... I'm not used to it." It was true. Her arms ached to hold the heavy sword of practice, and although she and Sophie had done little more balance and blocking exercises, her legs ached as well. All thanks to the help of the strongest member of the Dharmapala.

Jem smiled.

"Being trained by Nyingshuk himself must be very exhausting, and I have always seen him in paintings and sculptures, and at the same time named in the monasteries, but seeing him with my own eyes is something I have never seen before. Chulainn twice and Metatron only once, but the six-armed Mahakala himself is certainly something extraordinary "

"Yes, it was" commented Tessa in a tired voice. "It seems that Minato Arisato has some tricks up his sleeve that we do not know" she said looking at him while she ate without paying attention, with her headphones on her shoulders.

"That's right" replied Jem looked at the state of Tessa. "The Silent Brothers have prepared an ointment for sore muscles, Call my room before going to sleep and I'll apply a little"

Tessa blushed slightly, and then wondered why she had done it. shadowhunters had their own way of doing things. He had been in Jem's room before, even alone with him, even alone with him in his nightgown, and nothing had happened. He was only offering her a medicine, but even so, Tessa noticed that her face was burning; he seemed to see it and blushed too, with a very visible color on his pale skin. Tessa looked away quickly and saw Will staring at them both, his blue eyes fixed and annoyed. Only Henry was eating peas, while Minato finished eating and looked at them in a boring way; since his romantic bundle was indifferent to him.

"Thank you very much" Tessa replied. "I will do it..."

Charlotte burst into the room; several dark curls escaped from the forks with which her hair had been pulled back, and held a long roll of paper.

"I've found it!" scream. He collapsed breathlessly into the chair beside Henry, his face flushed with exertion. He smiled at Jem. "You were absolutely right, the Compensation files... I found it after only one hour, and it was true what the angel had said in the Council!"

"Let me see," Will asked as he let go of the fork. Tessa did not miss that she had eaten very little. The ring with the bird flashed on his finger as he prepared to take the roll from Charlotte.

She pushed his hand away from a friendly slap.

"No. We'll see it all at once, anyway, it was Jem's idea, right?"

Will frowned, but did not say anything. Charlotte spread the scroll on the table, pushing away the empty plates and tea cups at the same time to make room, and looked at the document. The paper was more like thick parchment, with dark red ink, like the color of runes in the habits of the Silent Brothers. It was written in english, but in a very clustered letter full of abbreviations; Tessa could not see what she saw.

Jem came up to her, brushing her arm, and read over his shoulder, thoughtful.

The girl turned her head towards him; a lock of his white hair tickled his face.

"What does it say?" he asked whispering.

"It's a compensation request," Will replied, not caring that she had asked Jem the question. "Sent to the York Institute in 1825 by Axel Hollingworth Mortmain, claiming compensation for the unjustifiable death of his parents, John Thaddeus and Anne Evelyn Shade, the adoptive parents of Mortmain"

"The Shades were witchers" replied Jem, reading below. "Both of them must have adopted him and let him keep his worldly surname, pass from time to time." He looked away from Tessa, then pushed her away; she wondered if she was remembering, like her, the conversation in the music room about witchers being unable to have children.

"Mortmain said he had begun to know the dark arts during his travels," recalled Charlotte, "but if his adoptive parents were witches, how was he able to learn the skills in creating automata?"

"I'm sure he knew exactly who to contact in the underworld to learn the dark arts," Will explained.

"In the Council, Ithuriel spoke about the fact that a group of shadowhunters had entered their parents' house and had been killed for breaking the Law," Tessa replied. "What law was supposed to have been violated?"

Charlotte frowned.

"It says something about illegal and unnatural dealings with demons, that can be almost anything, and that they were accused of creating a weapon that could kill the shadowhunters, the sentence would be death, but remember this was before The shadowhunters could kill the downworlders just for being suspicious of some evil, that's probably why there is nothing more substantial or detailed in this role. Mortmain filed his compensation claim through the Institute of York, who was under the direction of Aloysius Starkweather, did not ask for money, but the guilty shadow hunters were tried and sentenced, but he was denied the trial here in London on the grounds that the Shade were guilty beyond No doubt, and this is all there is, only a summary report of the fact, not all the papers, which should be kept at the York Institute" Charlotte pushed her damp hair back from her forehead. "This would explain Mortmain's hatred of shadowhunters, Minato, thank you for helping us with this intrigue"

All eyes turned to the blue-haired boy, who nodded at the eulogy without saying a word.

"And it provides us with a point of departure: the York Institute," Henry interjected, looking up from his plate. "The Starkweahers direct it, right? They'll have all the letters, papers..."

"And Aloysius Starkweather is eighty-nine years old," Charlotte cut him off. "He must have been young when they killed the Shades, maybe he remembers something that happened," he sighed. "Better sent him a message Oh, well, this is going to be very uncomfortable"

"Why honey?" Henry asked in his kind and absent manner.

"He and my father were friends, but then they argued ... something horrible, a long time ago, but they never spoke again"

"How was that poem?" Will, who had been playing with his empty teacup, stood up and declared:

 _Both pronounced words of great contempt,_

 _And they insulted the heart of their best friend..._

"Oh, for the Angel, Will, shut up," Charlotte begged as she stood up. "I have to write a letter to Aloysius Starkweather that overflows with repentance and entreaties, I do not need you to distract me" And picking up her skirts, she hurried out of the dining room.

"There's evidence that Tessa is her great-granddaughter, maybe it's an opportunity to tell her the truth, so she can get information from Mortmain" Will muttered as he set the cup on the table.

"Maybe you're right" Jem said when he heard Will's murmur. "But there is a possibility that the news that Tessa is her great granddaughter and that she has the blood of an Eidolon demon can affect him psychologically, it would be better not to tell her the truth so that it does not affect him"

Tessa swallowed hard, knew that it would be a profound impact on her to meet a half blood relative for the first time, especially that her great-grandfather has a grudge against Charlotte for being the daughter of her former friend. But there was another thing that caught his attention; Will had quoted a poem by Coleridge, one of Tessa's favorites. There was much more in him, about love, death and madness, but he could not remember the verses, at least not at that moment, with Will's blue eyes fixed on her.

"And of course, Charlotte has not eaten anything" observed Henry as he got up. "I'm going to see if Bridget can prepare a fried chicken dish for you..." He stopped for a moment, as if to give them an order, such as sending them to bed or returning them to the library so they could continue investigating. He passed, and an expression of bewilderment crossed Henry's face. "Wow, I do not remember what I was going to say," he announced, and went into the kitchen.

* * *

With the discussion of Will and Jem about Mortmain's past with the murder of his adoptive parents. Minato let them discuss their own theories and went to the library, where he would be at peace and listen to his music in silence.

The library of the Institute reminded him of the libraries of his world in his own time, especially the library of Gekkoukan High School, where he and all the students went in their spare time after ringing the bells of classes or looking for an investigation for Tasks. He saw his school library a quiet place to read or listen to music. He remembered the conversations he had with Mitsuru; either about the Dark Hour or the help for the exams and investigations. But it was in the England of the year 1878, where there was no technology and only gas was used as energy, and without counting on the existence of supernatural beings.

Instead of ordinary candle lamps, they are replaced by magic light, whose illumination shone through the entire library. The books on the shelves were full of books with covers different from modern ones. There were books on medicine, magic, astronomy, demonology, and some normal books such as poetry, fantasy, and fiction. He recognized some authors of the books. Since being in victorian England, it was possible to meet the authors who were alive, which would be a dream come true for a child. He saw that the cat _Church_ was coming towards him, making a purr in his legs. She sat in an armchair, put on her headphones and let herself be carried away by the relaxing music of her time, while the cat was on her legs.

While Minato was resting, Tessa had entered the library to have some space. far from the theories of Will and Jem. When she had entered, she noticed that Minato was sitting in the chair with the cat on his legs, with his eyes closed and with the two circular objects in his ears. Tessa had asked herself several times what were the strange objects she always wore, she wondered if it served to communicate with the beings she had summoned, but he said that she only listened to music, which disconcerted her even more. He enjoyed his dream and with _Church_ asleep, as they often scratched others, but Minato did not mind at all.

He went to the possession section in the lower part of the right wall. He found the book he was looking for and knelt by the bookcase; he leafed through it until he found the page, the scene in which the old man from _Christabel_ realizes that the girl before him is the daughter of the one who was his best friend and who is now his most hated enemy, the man to whom You can never forgive.

 _Friends were in youth;_

 _But murmurs can poison the truth;_

 _And constancy lives in the realms on high;_

 _And life is thorny, and youth futile;_

 _And deserve who we love_

 _It's like crazy to the brain._

 _They both uttered words of great contempt,_

 _And they insulted the heart of their best brother:_

 _They separated, never to see each other again!_

The voice he heard about her was as casual as it was known.

"Checking if my appointment is accurate?"

The book slipped from Tessa's hands and fell to the floor. She got up and watched, paralyzed, Will bend down to pick him up and then tease him with all the courtesy of the world.

"I assure you" he added, "my memory is perfect"

'And mine' thought Tessa.

That was the first time they had been alone for weeks. From that horrible scene on the roof, when he had insinuated that he considered her little more than a prostitute and, in addition, sterile. they had never mentioned that moment again. They had continued as if everything was normal, behaving correctly when they were in a group and avoiding being alone. Somehow, when they were with other people, Tessa was almost able to forget about that. But in front of Will, it was only Will (handsome as always, with the collar of his shirt open to show the black marks on the clavicle and the white skin of the neck, and with the dancing light of the candle reflecting the elegant planes and angles of his face), the memory of shame and anger formed a lump in his throat that drowned his words.

He looked at his hand, which still held the small volume bound in green leather.

"Are you going to take Coleridge out of my hand or will I stay in this foolish position forever?"

In silence, Tessa took the book.

"If you want to use the library," she said, saying goodbye, "you can do it without problems." You have Minato to keep you company in one of your poets' citations, I've found what I was looking for, and how it's getting late. . "

"Tessa" he called, and held out a hand to stop her.

She looked at him and wished she could ask him to call her miss. Gray again. Only the way he said her name would undo it, release something that he had knotted tightly under his ribs and cut off his breathing. He wished he would not use his name, but he knew how ridiculous it would be if he asked. No doubt it would spoil everything he had tried to make him indifferent.

"Yes?" she asked.

There was something melancholy in Will's expression as he watched her. Tessa refrained from looking at him in surprise. Will, melancholy? I had to be pretending.

"Nothing, I..." He shook his head; A strand of dark hair fell on his forehead, and he pushed it away from his eyes with an impatient gesture. "Nothing" he repeated. "The first time I showed you the library, you told me that your favorite book was _The Wide Wide World_ , I thought maybe you would like to know... I read" Her head was bowed, and she looked at her through the thick eyelashes , raising his blue eyes; Tessa wondered how many times Will would have achieved what he intended just by looking like this.

While the two were arguing, Minato had turned off his mp3s to rest his ears for a second. Seeing the conversation, he knew immediately that they were arguing over tastes; the book that Tessa had grabbed in the poetry section must have picked it up to review some citation of a paragraph that Will had said in the dining room. The cat made a purr in her legs and a small meow, so that it caressed it and emit more purr as thanks. He groaned without making a sound; Sometimes the love affairs and love triangles were something that happened in soap operas or sometimes in real life, something that Minato was not interested in being part of, and even less of a youthful romance.

In the conversation, it became turbulent.

"And has it turned out to be your taste?" the girl asked in a polite and distant voice.

"Not at all" Will answered. "It seems silly and sentimental"

"Well, against tastes..." Tessa replied sweetly, knowing that he was trying to prick her and refusing to bite the hook. "What for one is honey for another is ice, do not you think?"

Was he imagining it or did Will seem disappointed?

"Do you have any other American to recommend me?"

"Why would I do it if you make fun of my tastes? I think you have to accept that in questions of reading we are in opposite extremes, as we are in many other things, and seek your recommendations elsewhere, mr. Herondale"

He bit his tongue as soon as he finished speaking. That had been excessive and he knew it.

Minato moaned internally. It seems that he was reaching a point of inflexibility of the conversation. In his case, it was something different; the women went to him, not the other way around. Elizabeth wanted to know what Port Island was like and she kissed him, had some conversation with Yukari on the beach, and Mitsuru talked with him in his office or in any other room to talk about his power, until she had her intimate moment with the. Everything was strange and confusing in his relationships with women, or because of his cold, individualistic attitude.

"Mr. Herondale?" he repeated. "Tessa, I thought..."

"What did you think?" she asked in a glacial tone.

"That we could at least talk about books"

"We've done it," she replied. "You have insulted my tastes, and you should know that The Wide Wide World is not my favorite book, it's just a story I liked, like The Hidden Hand, or ... you know, maybe you should suggest something to me me, so I can judge your tastes, otherwise it would not be fair "

Will jumped on the nearest table and sat, swinging his legs, clearly thinking about the matter. Minato was still asleep and the cat looked at him with indifference.

" _The castle of Otranto_..."

"Is not that the book in which the hero's son dies crushed by a giant helmet that falls from the sky? And you said that _History of two cities_ was silly!" exclaimed Tessa, who would have died before admitting that she had read _Otranto_ and loved it.

" _History of two cities_ " Will repeated. "I've read it again, you know, because we're talking about him" Minato gestured asleep and the cat, who the cat looked at him with indifference. "They will be the witnesses, and you were right, I was not stupid."

"Do not?"

"No," he replied. "There is too much despair in him"

She looked into his eyes. They were blue like lakes; It felt as if it sank into them.

"Despair?"

"Sydney has no future," he said, seriously, "right? With love or without love, he knows he can not save himself without Lucie, but allowing him to be with him would degrade her"

Tessa shook her head.

"This is not how I remember him, his sacrifice is noble..."

"It's the only thing he can do" he insisted. Do you remember what he says to Lucie? _Had it been possible... that it would correspond to the love of the man before you, of that degraded man, failed, drunk and completely useless, he would have realized on this day and in this hour, in spite of his happiness, that I would not have brought him more than misery, sadness and regret, that I would have tarnished him and made you miserable, by dragging you in his fall_ "

A read fell into the fireplace and sent a shower of sparks, which startled them both and silenced Will; Tessa's heart skipped a beat, and she turned her eyes away from her companion. Minato was still asleep and the cat did not care about the situation.

 _'Stupid'_ she said angrily. _'How stupid'_

He remembered how he had treated her, what I had told him, and at that moment he was letting his knees fall apart just by hearing Dickens's words.

"Well," she said. "You have certainly memorized a good piece, very impressive"

Will opened the collar of his shirt wider, exposing the elegant clavicle. It took Tessa a few seconds to realize that he was teaching her a Mark that was inches above the heart.

"Mnemosyne," said Will. "The rune of memory is permanent"

Quickly, Tessa looked away.

"It's late, I have to retire, I'm exhausted." She passed him and went to the door. He wondered if he would be hurt, then pushed that idea away from his head. It was Will; No matter how volatile the humor was, however charming it was when it was good, it was a poison to her, to anyone.

" _Vathek_ " he said, as he dropped from the table.

Tessa stopped at the door, realizing she was still clutching Coleridge's book, but then decided she would do well to take it away. It would be a nice change from the Codex.

"What is that?" I ask.

" _Vathek_ " Will repeated. "From William Beckford, if you liked Otranto" she thought she had not admitted that she liked it, "I think you'll like this one"

"Oh," she exclaimed. "Well, thank you, I'll remember."

He did not answer; He was still standing where she had left him, near the table. He looked at the ground, and the dark hair hid his face. A piece of Tessa's heart softened "

"And goodnight, Will," he added before realizing it.

She looked.

"Good evening, Tessa"

Again melancholic, but not sad as before. Minato woke up from his sleep and let out a yawn, took off his headphones and massaged his neck, while the cat just moaned and looked into Will's eyes, letting out a small meow.

"Ah, you woke up, Glas," Will answered sarcastically.

Minato looked at Will and Tessa.

"Good quote from Coleridge," he answered in a neutral tone.

Will smiled.

"Well, at least you're the only one who congratulated me, thank you, Messiah."

Minato shrugged.

Will looked at the headphones on his shoulders.

"You know, I saw what mundanes use to communicate with each other, it's called a telephone, do you communicate or listen to something with that cylinder?"

"I listen to music" Minato replied with indifference.

Will let out a laugh.

"You are very interesting, Glas"

He shrugged at the shadowhunter's response.

When Will was going to caress the cat, the animal had moaned and launched himself at the shadowhunter. Will began to curse. Tessa left, unable to hide a faint smile.

* * *

 **I hope you liked this chapter.**

 **Do not forget to leave a comment.**

 **A greeting.**


	4. Chapter 4

**We continue with this story. Here all the comments are well received in this chapter.**

* * *

Charlotte slammed the paper against the desk with an exclamation of rage.

"Aloysius Starkweather is the most stubborn, hypocritical, stubborn, degenerate..." asked, in an obvious attempt to control his rage.

Minato had not registered an attitude when Mitsuru was upset or stressed by the work in life with the Dark Hour or when Junpei loosed a joke without grace.

"Do you want a thesaurus?" Will asked. He was lying in one of the wing chairs near the fireplace in the living room, his boots on the ottoman. I had them full of mud, and the sofa was too. On a standard day, Charlotte would have scolded him, but the Aloysius letter he had received that morning and for which he had gathered everyone in the room seemed to absorb his full attention. "It seems you're running out of words"

"And is he really a degenerate?" Jem asked, calmly, from the depths of another chair. "I mean, the old man is almost ninety years old, no doubt the time has passed for any real perversion"

"I do not know" Will said. "You'd be surprised what some of the old men do in the Tavern of the Demon"

"Nothing anyone does that you know could surprise us, Will," interjected Jessamine, who was lying on the couch with a damp cloth on her forehead. His headache had not passed yet.

"Honey" Henry said anxiously as he walked over to where his wife was sitting, "are you okay?"

He was not wrong. Red spots of anger had covered Charlotte's face and neck.

"I find it charming," Will said. "I've heard that moles are the ultimate fashion craze this season"

Henry, restless, patted his wife on the shoulder to his wife on the shoulder.

"Do you want a cold cloth? What can I do to help you?"

"You could ride to Yorkshire and cut off that old goat's head." Charlotte sounded like she was going crazy.

"Would not that put us in a pretty uncomfortable position with the Clave?" asked her husband. "They do not like it very much about, you know, decapitations and things like that"

"What about you, Minato?" she replied with supplication in her voice. "Could you invoke an angel from Heaven or a deity for this situation?"

Minato looked at him emotionlessly.

"I do not get involved in other people's disputes"

"Oh!" exclaimed the exasperated director. "It's my fault, is not it, I do not know why I thought I could win it, that man is a nightmare"

"What did he tell you exactly?" Will asked. "In the letter, I want to say"

"He refuses to see me, me or Henry," she explained. "He says he will never forgive my family for what my father did to him, my father..." She sighed. "He was a difficult man, totally faithful to the letter of the Law, and the Strakweather have always interpreted the Law in a more open way. My father thought that in the north they lived in any way, like savages, and he had no qualms. I do not know what else he did, but old Aloysius seems to still feel personally insulted, not to mention that he has also said that if I care what he thinks about something, I would have invited him to the last meeting of the Council. As if I was in charge of that kind of thing! "

"Why did not they invite him?" inquired Jem.

"He's too old, he should not be running the Institute, but he refuses to give up and, for now, Consul Wayland has not forced him to, but he does not invite him to Council meetings either. the hint or just die of old age, but Aloysius's father lived to be one hundred and four, we may have to endure it like another fifteen years" Charlotte shook her head, desperate.

"Well, if he does not want to see you or Henry, why do not you send someone else?" Jessamine asked in a bored voice. "You direct the Institute, the members of the Enclave are supposed to do what you tell them"

"But there are many on Benedict's side," the woman complained. "They want to have favoritism in this mission"

"You can trust us" Will said. "Send me, and also Jem"

"What about me?" Jessamine asked, indignant.

"What about you? You do not want to go for real, do you?"

Jessamine raised the tip of the damp cloth over her eyes to look at Will annoyed.

"Is it a stinky train all the way to the deadly boring Yorkshire? No, of course not, I just wanted Charlotte to know that she can trust me"

"Trust in you, Jessamine, but it's clear that you're not well enough to go, which is a shame, because Aloysius has always had a weakness for pretty faces" the director of the Institute responded.

"One more reason why I should go" Will insisted.

"Will, Jem..." Charlotte bit her lip. "Are you sure? The Council was not at all pleased with the independent actions you took in the matter of the Dark Lady"

"Well, they should be, we killed a dangerous demon!" Will protested.

"And we saved _Church_ "

"I doubt it will count in our favor, "said Will," that cat bit me three times the other night "

"Surely that counts in your favor," interjected Tessa. "Or at least in Jem's"

Will grimaced at her, but she did not seem angry; It was the kind of grin that could have done to Jem if the other boy had made fun of him. Maybe if they could behave in a polite way with each other, thought Tessa. Last night he had been very kind to her in the library.

"It seems an absurd journey" Charlotte pointed out. The red spots on the skin began to fade, but it looked bad. "I do not think I'll tell you much if you know that I sent them, if only..."

"Charlotte" exclaimed Tessa, "if there is a way to get her to tell us"

The aforementioned looked at her confused.

"Tessa, what are you...?" He broke off suddenly, and his eyes lit up. "Oh, I see, Tessa, what a good idea"

"Oh what?" Jessamine wanted to know. What idea?"

"If we could get something from him," Tessa explained, "and give it to me, I could use it to change myself in. And maybe access his memories, I could say what he remembers about Mortmain and the Shades, if he remembers anything."

"Then you will come with us to Yorkshire," Jem said, then looked at the young man with blue hair. "You too, Minato"

Suddenly, all eyes in the room were fixed on both of them. Minato did not show any fright on his face; He knew they were going to mention it. While Tessa felt shy, she did not say anything in a moment.

"There's no need for Tessa to be with us," Will said, then looked at Minato. He thought it would be very interesting to see the reaction of the old man to one of the invocations of the blue-haired teenager; It would be something incredible to see.

"But Tessa has already told us that she needs to use something that has a strong relationship with the carrier" Jem explained. "If what we choose turns out to be insufficient..."

"He also said that he can use a nail cut, a lock of hai..."

"So you're suggesting that we take the train to York, meet a ninety-year-old man, jump over him and pull his hair, right? I'm sure the Clave will be delighted. He has the ability to summon any creatures, we have already seen how he summoned Cu Chulainn, Metatron, and now a guardian god of the budism, it is easy to search for the information we seek"

"But there is also the possibility that the old man will give him a cardiac arrest" replied Jessamine.

"There is also the revelation that Tessa is the great-granddaughter of Aloysius Starkweather" replied Minato entering the conversation, which has been the attention of Shadowhunters of the Institute. He continued: "Yorkshire is the place where the Institute and the Starkweather are, is not it? Then she has the right to visit her homeland and know a living place of her blood, she may recognize her as a missing great-granddaughter and repair the fracture. between him and his family, Charlotte"

The room was silent for a long hour, without anyone saying anything. The gears of Charlotte's mind began to process the information that Minato said; the possibility that old Aloysius could recognize Tessa was risky. She had heard that old Starkweather's granddaughter had died during the ceremony of his first shadowhunter Marks, which had affected the entire Starkweather family, but the opportunity to repair a fracture could be a big change for Aloysius himself and the Charlotte's family.

Henry decided to speak first.

"W-but is it possible that I can recognize her?"

"Blood calls blood" Minato shrugged. "There are no limits or barriers"

"It seems we have a point in favor" Jem said smiling, looked at Tessa. "So, are you coming?"

"Yes" she answered with affirmation. "Minato is right, I am a hybrid between a nephilim and a demon, I have the right to visit my family, the blood of the angel Raziel runs through my veins and those of my family.

Both Jem and the members of the Institute smiled at Tessa's determination. Will hesitated and looked at Minato.

"Heavens, Glas, you know how to surprise us, thanks for your intervention"

He shrugged at Will's sarcastic comment.

"It seems that we are once again in debt with you, Minato" Jem told him. "The north line has trains leaving Kings Cross all day, it's only a few hours"

"Then I'll go" Tessa decided. "I've never taken a train"

Will raised his hands.

"So will it be your first time riding a train?"

"Yes," she replied, she knew that with her calm attitude it drove him crazy. "I would very much like to travel in one"

"Trains are dirty and full of smoke" warned Will. "You would not like it"

Tessa did not flinch.

"I will not know until I try it, right?"

"I've never bathed naked in the Thames, but I know I would not like it"

"But think how entertaining it would be to be seen" Tessa replied, saw Jem ducking his head to hide a big smile. "In any case, it does not matter, I want to go and go, when do we go out?"

They will roll their eyes, but Jem must be smiling.

"Tomorrow morning, we'll get there before nightfall"

"I have to send a message to Aloysius saying I'll wait for them" Charlotte said, picking up the pen. He stopped and looked at everyone. "Is it a bad idea? I feel... as if I'm confused"

Tessa looked at her worriedly; seeing Charlotte, as well as the possibility of finding a great-grandfather and being able to regain communication between the families of the Shadowhunters was a very difficult task, but one had to take risks.

Henry approached his wife and put his hand on her shoulder.

"The only alternative seems to do nothing, dear Charlotte" has indicated. "And I am of the opinion that doing nothing seldom works, and what could go wrong?"

"Oh, for the Angel, I wish you had not said that" his wife replied passionately, but leaned over the paper and began to write.

* * *

That afternoon Tessa and Sophie had their second training session with the Lightwoods. After donning her uniform, Tessa left her room and found the maid waiting for her in the hallway. She was also dressed to train, with her hair pulled back in a proper bun behind her head, and a grim expression on her face.

"Sophie, what's wrong?" Tessa asked, as he began to walk beside her. "You have a very bad face"

"Well, if you really want to know..." Sophie lowered her voice. "It's Bridget"

"Bridget?" The Irish girl had remained invisible in the kitchen since her arrival, unlike Cyril, who had been here and there around the house, running errands for Sophie. The last memory that Tessa had with Bridget was seeing her sitting on Gabriel Lightwood with a knife and her expression when she witnessed the invocation of a Buddhist god before her eyes. "What have you done?"

"Is that..." Sophie let out a long sigh. "She's not very nice, Agatha was my friend, but Bridget... well, among the servants she talks to us, you know, normally, but Bridget does not want to... Cyril is quite nice, but Bridget stays in the kitchen alone, singing those ugly Irish ballads, I bet he's singing "right now"

They did not go far from the kitchen door; Sophie gestured for Tessa to follow her, and together they approached stealthily and looked inside. The pantry was large, with doors leading to the kitchen and pantry. The countertop was full of food for dinner: fish and vegetables, finishes to clean and prepare. Bridget stood by the sink, her hair around her head with many red curls, curled by moisture. And he was singing; Sophie was right about that. His voice, rising above the sound of the water, was sharp and sweet.

 _Oh, her father on the stairs accompanied her,_

 _His mother's blond hair combed her hair._

 _His sister Ann to the cross took her,_

 _And his brother John the horse went up._

 _"Now you are up and I are down,_

 _Before leaving, give me a kiss "_

 _She bent down to kiss him,_

 _He hurt her deeply and he did not fail._

 _And with a sharp knife like a dart,_

 _Her brother, in the heart, stabbed her._

For a second, Nate's face appeared before Tessa's eyes, and she shuddered. Sophie, looking beyond, did not seem to notice.

"That's the only thing he sings about," Sophie whispered. "Murder and betrayal, blood and pain, it's horrible"

Luckily, Sophie's voice covered the end of the song. Bridget had begun to dry the dishes and began a new ballad, a melody even more melancholy than the first.

 _Why your sword like that drips blood,_

 _Edward, Edward?_

 _Why is your sword so dripping blood?_

 _And why are you so sad?_

"Enough is enough" Sophie turned and hurried down the hall; Tessa followed her. "See what I mean, right? It's so horribly morbid, and it's horrible to share the room with her." He does not say a word, day or night, just moans..."

"Do you share the room with her?" Tessa was surprised. "But there are many rooms in the Institute"

"For shadowhunters to visit" Sophie explained. "Not for the servants." She said it without seconds, as if it had never occurred to him to complain because dozens of splendid rooms were empty while she had to share one with Bridget, the singer of macabre ballads.

"I could talk to Charlotte..." Tessa began.

"Oh, no, please do not do it." They had arrived at the training room. Sophie turned to her, nervous. "I did not want you to think I've been complaining about the other servants, I really do not, miss Tessa."

She was going to assure him that she would not say anything to the principal if that was what Sophie wanted, when she heard angry voices outside the door of the training room. He motioned the maid to be silent, bowed and listened.

The voices were undoubtedly from the Lightwood brothers. He recognized the low, harsh tones of Gideon.

"I know you're tense, Gabriel, I can know that"

"You do not know the power he did in the Council room, what I saw was not something I saw on the board of the Clave" Gabriel stuttered.

"The rumors of an angel's release were confined to miss Gray's pendant, and the invocation of a powerful archangel, right?"

There was silence. Tessa could guess that Gabriel was still scared by what he had just seen at the Clave meeting in Westminster.

"Gabriel, brother" Gideon's tone was grave. "I have also witnessed this, it was the first time I could see for my own eyes the invocation of a divinity of the Dharmapala, Minato Arisato is a powerful witcher"

"Ithuriel also bowed his head before him and called him Messiah" he swallowed. "It was impossible for a witcher like him to be able to earn the respect of an angel, and above all to be a kind of salvation"

Sophie and Tessa shared a look with each other; they knew that Minato was a mysterious and reserved person, but the technique he uses to invoke powerful beings drawn from myths and religions made them give goosebumps. The invocation of Mahakala was one of them. Then he was appointed as Messiah by Metatron; which all the members of the Institute and the Clave aroused interest in the young man with blue hair.

"Our father was like a ghost, Gideon, he did not stop shaking, but he managed to maintain his composure"

"Then it's a signal!" Gideon told him.

"A signal? Of what?"

"A sign that our father had just deserved divine punishment!"

Gabriel looked at him surprised.

"I know our father is sometimes..."

"I do not care, he had always been vain and obsessive! What happened at the Council meeting showed that his ego will soon come to him"

"If you despise our father so much" said the latter, "why did you return from Spain?"

"I've come back for you..." Gideon replied, in exasperation.

Sophie and Tessa had been leaning against the door, their ears pressed. At that moment, Tessa gave way and opened suddenly. They both straightened up quickly, and Tessa hoped they would not show on the face they had been listening to.

Gabriel and Gideon were in a pool of light in the center of the room, face to face. Minato was standing with his hands in his pockets and with headphones in his ears. He gave both of them a deep look and shook his head. Tessa supposed they had been spied on. Gideon ran his hand through his blond hair, and made a curt nod to the girls when they appeared in the doorway.

"Good morning" he greeted.

Gabriel Lightwood went to receive them, where Minato followed him; with his hands in pockets. Gabriel was tall, thought Tessa, who had to tilt her neck back to look at his face. Being a tall girl, it did not often occur to her that she had to throw her head back to look at a man, although both Will and Jem were taller than Tessa.

"Is Miss Lovelace still sadly absent?" he inquired without bothering to greet her.

His expression was calm, and the only sign of his earlier agitation was a vein throbbing just below the Valor Combat rune he had drawn on his neck.

"Keep on with headache" Tessa replied, as she followed him to the center of the training room. "We do not know how long she will be indisposed"

"I guess until the training sessions are over" Gideon replied, in such a dry way that Tessa was surprised when Sophie laughed.

Immediately, the young woman regained her seriousness, but not before the older of the Lightwoods had given him a surprised, almost appreciative look, as if he were not used to laughing at their jokes.

With a sigh, Gabriel released two long sticks from their pods on the wall. He passed one to Tessa.

"Before we started" he looked at Minato. "Will you invoke Mahakala?"

The young man with blue hair shook his head and squeezed the Evoker. When the dark blue smoke began to form, it acquired the shape of a woman with pale skin who wore only a black shirt that covered the top of her generous bust and a black interior that covered her lower part. His body was curvilinear and had a black cape. His features were affiliated and beautiful, and he wore a jet-black hat.

The invoked woman stood firm, authoritarian and straight. He looked at the two girls with deep, serious yellow eyes.

"I am Scathach, the master who prepared Cu Chulainn in the art of hand-to-hand and spear combat, I will gladly teach you the most essential techniques in combat, I hope to see much of both"

Sophie and Tessa had to nod affirmatively and nervously, while Gideon and Gabriel had their mouths open.

"Oh, por el Ángel" Gideon mused in spanish.

* * *

Minato had dressed to go to the carriage. He wore it because it consisted of a dark brown jacket and the clothes he wore at the Institute. You had the mp3 and headphones in your pockets and a top hat. In his hands he carried an open umbrella, since it had started to rain, which was very mentioned in gothic books and suspense films.

The carriage left for Kings Cross Station. Through the gray rain curtain, he saw only a tall, impressive building, with a large clock tower rising before it. At the top was a weathervane, which showed that the wind was blowing to the north, and strongly, splashing cold drops of rain on his face.

Inside, the station was chaotic; people rushing here and there; Newspaper vendors shouting the news; Men walking up and down with posters attached to their chests, announcing from hair tonics to soap. A boy in a Norfolk jacket ran from one side to the other, with his mother chasing him. Will said something to Jem and got lost in the crowd.

"He's gone and left us, right?" Tessa asked, fighting with the umbrella, which refused to close.

"Let me do it." With skill, Jem squeezed the mechanism; the umbrella folded with a decided click. Tessa smiled at Jem, brushing her damp hair away. Minato was reminded of the train stations when he was going to take the train to Port Island, although these operate on a coal basis to work, while those of his time are powered by electricity, which is many years before London will reach the modern century XXI. Will returned accompanied by a waiter with the face of few friends, who took Cyril's luggage and let them hurry, that the train was not going to wait all day.

Will looked at the waiter and then at Jem's cane and back. Narrowed his eyes.

"He waits for us," Will said with a murderous smile.

The waiter seemed stunned, but said " _Sir_ " in a less aggressive tone, and proceeded to guide them to the exit platform. People, lots of people! He passed Tessa as she made her way, holding Jem with one hand and Jessamine's hat with the other. At the end of the station, where the tracks went out into the open, he saw the gray steel sky, staining the soot.

Jem helped her into the compartment; There was an uproar with the luggage. Will finally tipped the waiter between screams and beeps while in convoy he was preparing to leave. The door closed behind them and just as the train began to move forward, with the smoke passing through the window in white streaks and the wheels rattling merrily.

"Did you bring something to read during the trip?" Will asked as he sat facing Tessa. Minato stood next to Will, his eyes focused on the sale.

She thought of _Vathek's_ copy and Will's poem inside; He had left it at the Institute to avoid temptations, just as he would leave a box of chocolates if he were on a diet and did not want to gain weight.

"No," Tessa replied. "Lately I have not found anything you want to read especially"

Will lifted his chin, but said nothing.

"And you, Minato?" said Jem. "Did you bring something for the road?"

He looked at him, and said:

"My music player"

The three looked at him; the gray cylinder with a blue-green bar that contained numbers and buttons, which connected a cable with two gray headphones. They had always seen Minato carrying him in his ears when he was in the library or in the living room.

"That thing of yours that you can hear music, right?" Will answered looking into his eyes.

"Yes," he said without hesitation.

"The only music devices that I know, is the record player that Thomas Edison had created to listen to music, but I had never seen anything like it" Tessa replied, curious.

Minato knew that they were curious about him and his mp3, he could not blame them; It was in the year 1878, in the middle of the industrial revolution, where the technologies that had revolutionized the modern world were being built little by little, besides the possibility of meeting poets, writers, and famous scientists.

"It's something totally different," he replied, keeping his composure calm.

"Really, Glas?" said Will.

"Yes"

"But how does it work?" Tessa replied, wanting to know the use of the strange device.

"You press the button where it says play and you will listen to the music," he said.

The three were surprised.

"I see" Will replied. "Also, is it your first time traveling on a train?"

Minato shook his head.

"Occasionally I use it to travel"

"What place did you travel?" replied Jem.

"Gekkoukan High School" answered Minato bluntly.

That's where the three were most surprised; A minimal piece of information about the mysterious blue haired teenager.

"A high school?" said incredulous Will. "Like those schools where only the worldly rich go to enroll their children, right?"

"So, the clothes you were wearing when you first came to the Institute, are you from that high school?" Jem said, intrigued.

"Yes"

"Like that red patch where it said S.E.E.S, the full name of the organization that Henry had said when you and Consul Wayland had appeared?" commented Tessa, wanting to know more about the organization that Minato worked.

Minato looked at the three of them; They wanted to know more, they wanted to know how was their life and their ability with the Evoker. If I said it, there would be more confusion, and more response. It would be too much information for them to assimilate it, without counting that God is a piece of the Axium.

"It's a secret organization that was founded by the daughter of a scientist to stop a phenomenon that happened at midnight, calling it the Dark Hour. This phenomenon only makes everything go dark, transforming the lights into sickly green color, causing the water It will turn red like blood and turning normal people into coffins, to stop it, it was implemented in the search of young people with enough psyche to not submit to the Dark pistol that I carry is an instrument that was created to invoke supernatural beings of our minds, to then use them against evil entities called Shadows, that's all I can say"

The three remained silent. For Jem and Will, it was the first time they heard of a secret world organization that they recruited young people to fight against demons they had never heard. The monarchies and governments of the world had negotiated agreements with shadow hunters to keep the cities and their people safe from demonic threats, but the creation of a human organization that would be able to fight an unknown demonic threat if it called them the attention Especially that they use pistols without bullets as a means of invocation.

"Very good" Will said, clearing his throat. "To clarify the matter, there is a secret organization that recruits mundane young people with a great mental ability who are immune to a kind of phenomenon that only happens at midnight, then they use those guns to shoot themselves in the head and summon beings from the old stories, right?"

Minato nodded to the shadow hunter's clarification.

"But there's something else in your version of the story that you do not want to tell, is there more information?"

Minato looked at the three of them for a while.

"There are things that you are not prepared to face" he said harshly.

"The same thing that Cu Chulainn said at the Council meeting," said Jem.

"Oh, come on, Glas!" exclaimed Will. "You have to be so close to us! You helped us against Mortmain's automatons, invoked an ancient Irish hero, a powerful archangel, and then released an angel who was imprisoned in Tessa's pendant and tell us the truth of Mortmain's hatred towards us and the origins of Tessa, you also summoned a deity of the Dharmapala and the very Scathach that is only mentioned in ballads, we are prepared to face any extreme and crazy situation "

"Will is right" Jem said to the conversation. "You are part of the Institute, you are part of our family"

"You can count on us" Tessa replied as a sister comforting her younger brother.

Minato stood still and said nothing. the mention of family made him remember his moments that he had spent in his world with his friends, he had enjoyed good and tragic moments at the same time, but they managed to overcome him as a family; United.

He hesitated for a minute, and then spoke to them:

"We had to stop a powerful deity who had created the phenomenon of the Dark Hour, that deity was going to bring the end to humanity"

The three paled and remained silent. For the first time, the two shadowhunters were frightened and terrified; they had faced the threat of the demons, the struggle against the automatons of Mortmain, but the appearance of a supreme deity that would be capable of annihilating all life on Earth is to exceed the limits.

Tessa decided to finally talk.

"D-you said a deity?" She swallowed nervously. I thought about what you said sometimes the priests in the churches about the Last Judgment and the wrath of God, but I never knew that a deity greater than God can exterminate humanity. She feels terrified.

"Yes. Named herself as the Goddess of the Night and the creator of the Dark Hour: Nyx"

There was a silence in the room.

"You said Nyx!" He exclaimed with his eyes open like blinds and his voice exasperated.

"Yes"

He swallowed his saliva.

"Nyx How the goddess of greek mythology, right?" Jem said with a slight tremor in his voice.

Minato nodded to his response.

Tessa looked worriedly at the two shadowhunters.

"But was it really a deity of Greek mythology responsible for the phenomenon you spoke about?"

"And it was also the cause of carrying out a catastrophe known as the Fall, the end of time. To get to Nyx, he has to come into contact with a deity that is the manifestation of the pain and suffering of negative emotions. If Nyx touches Erebus, the Fall would begin"

Another silence has been added to the room where they were.

Tessa, Will and Jem were horrified and scared. They believed that the threat of death was the highest priority of shadow hunters, but also two powerful deities that threatened to destroy the Earth was something totally frightening.

"Then" commented Tessa alarmed. "The only option to stop Nyx is to prevent you from having contact with someone older than her, right?"

The blue haired boy nodded.

"Erebus" said Will, he knew very well who that being was that Minato had spoken. "It is impossible"

"Erebus?" said Tessa confused.

"In greek mythology," Jem explained. "He is a primordial god and son of Chaos, Erebus is also like the personification of darkness and shadow, and it is also said that his consort is Nyx the Goddess of the Night, with whom he has had descendants such as Aether, Hemera, Hesperides, Hypanos , Moros, Geras, Styx, Charon, Nemesis and Thanatos It is also said that he covers the world with a cloak of darkness and darkness. "It seems that our hunt for demons and Mortmain has taken a huge turn"

There was a bad word in Welsh. Reflecting the demons was part of the trade of shadowhunters, but the threat of two powerful deities in greek mythology made him feel more terrified than he was.

"W-but-but how did you beat Nyx?" Jem answered impatiently, also Will and Tessa wanted to know the outcome of the battle.

"I had to fight against one of his sons: Thanatos" said Minato.

The three were shocked.

"You said you fought Thanatos?" Will exclaimed surprised.

Minato nodded affirmatively.

"Did you beat him?" Tessa replied with tension in her voice.

"Yes, he was the recipient of Nyx's essence to effect the Fall, he was an opponent that my friends and I have fought, but we managed to defeat him"

"What about Nyx?" said Will.

"I had to sacrifice my soul for the Great Seal and prevent Nyx from entering its dimension"

The three remained silent for a few more minutes.

"You-you sacrificed your soul?" He answered like a whisper.

The young man with blue hair nodded.

"I-I can not believe it" Jem said with exasperation in his voice.

Tessa stood still and nervous, could not believe that she had heard.

"Was not there another alternative?" I ask her.

"It was the only option, I did it for the good of my friends"

"Did you have fear and doubts?" He responded by recovering from the shock.

"I had, but I did not waver, I accepted my destiny, I accepted the risks and I accepted to carry the weight of the world, I do not doubt, I accept" Minato answered without any hesitation in his voice, but a serious and mature affirmation.

"I still can not understand, how can I?"

"Nyx did not do it in an evil way" which caught their attention. He continued: "But because humanity wants it so"

"I do not understand," said Will.

"The reason why she and Erebus decided to put an end to humanity, was because humans lived from sad, dying, painful and depressing times, and these negative emotions make both deities awaken their sleepy slumber. Speed has become a moment in which you can be a human being.

That mention at the end made the three scared.

"I remember that you explained to us the use of that weapon of yours that you have" responded Will.

"He is an Evoker, and yes, the only option is to accept your final destiny"

"But it makes it more confusing for me" said Tessa. "Why did they do it in the form of a weapon?"

"To make possible the invocations that are in our psyche and let us know that we are prepared to face our death"

Tessa swallowed and said nothing.

"So..." Jem said, regaining his composure. "Nyx was not going to destroy humanity, but to fulfill the right to die?"

Minato nodded.

"Accept death" Will mumbled softly so no one would hear him. He does not like that word, it gave him chills and fear. Accepting the death of a loved one was something he did not like. Losing Jem would be a hard blow to his heart. He had already lost a loved one, but losing another would not leave him alone. While in Jem, it seemed somewhat intriguing about the concept of acceptance to death, since in the old worldly cultures like the asian and the muslim see death as a new beginning after dying; rest in paradise or reincarnate in a new life. Those concepts struck him as fascinating as worldly ones take him to death, but in the case of shadowhunters it was different; they faced firm and direct death, since they carried one of the angels of Heaven. But the feeling of dying from his illness had scared him, but, with listening to Minato about accepting the death of humanity, something inside him changed, something that had begun to change in him.

"But... how were you able to escape that Great Seal?" Tessa replied, causing both nephilim to leave their minds and enter reality.

Minato looked directly at the landscape through the window; It had been more than several hours since they left the Kings Cross train station. The trees and fields of sod covered ground were left behind, by the speed that the train was going. He moaned.

"You are not ready to know the rest of the story" he said without looking at the three of them, his eyes fixed on the landscape that was left behind.

"Are there more secrets that we are not able to know, are not we, Glas?" Will said with folded arms.

"I only told them one part of the story, the rest is complicated and difficult to accept" he said in a neutral and cold voice.

"I see" Will understood.

"Something else" Minato looked directly at Tessa. "How will they do with her when we get to Yorkshire?"

"Hey?" said Tessa confused.

"Ah! That's right, I almost forgot!" Jem replied, remembering the plan. He took off his ring and handed it to Tessa. It had engraved the drawing of the battlements of a tower, unlike Will's ring that had drawn a heron in flight. "The ring of the Carstairs family, so you can merit that you are an Ascended and my betrothed"

Tessa's cheeks turned pink.

"Thanks" she said in a low, shy voice.

"A great possibility for Tessa's great-grandfather to take a big surprise" Will said sarcastically.

"It's something that is completely planned and perfected" Jem said with a childish smile at their corners.

"Charlotte was not wearing a wedding ring" commented Tessa. "I had not realized that shadowhunters were wearing them"

"We do not take them," Will informed. "The custom is to give the girl the family ring when you commit yourself, but in the wedding ceremony they exchange runes instead of rings, one in the arm and another in the heart"

" _Write me as a seal on your heart, as a mark on your arm, for love is strong as death, cruel jealousy as the grave_ " cited Jem. " _The Song of Songs_ "

"Cruel floors like the _grave_?" Tessa raised her eyebrows. "Is not that... romantic?"

" _His embers, embers of fire, strong flame_ " Will added, shaking his eyebrows. "I had always thought that women found the idea of jealousy very romantic, men fighting for you..."

"Well, there is no grave in worldly weddings" she replied. "Although your ability to quote the Bible is impressive, better than my aunt Harriet's"

"Did you hear, Jem, you just compared us to your aunt Harriet?"

The aforementioned, as always, was calm.

"We must know all religious texts well" he explained. "For us they are instruction manuals"

"And do you memorize them at school?" Tessa realized that she had not seen Will or Jem studying since she was in the Institute. "Or maybe when you were under a guardian?"

"Yes, although Charlotte has neglected our training a lot lately, as you can imagine" said Will. "Either you have a tutor or you go to school in Idris, that is, until you reach the age of eighteen, which fortunately will be soon, for both of you?"

"Who is the older of the two?"

"Jem" Will answered.

"I" replied the alluded at the same time.

And they also laughed in unison.

"But only for three monthes," Will added.

"I knew you would have to say that" Jem replied, smiling on his side.

Tessa looked at one and the other. There could not be two guys with more different aspects or who had a more different character. He focused his gaze on the blue haired boy.

"And you, how old are you, Minato?"

He looked at her indifferently.

"Seventeen" he said with a shrug.

"Wow, then it means that you are our age" said Jem optimistically.

He nodded for the compliment. Then he asked a question.

"What is that rune you have in your neck?"

"Whath...? Ah! This is a parabatai rune."

"And what is that?" Tessa asked. "You always mention it is your conversations, but I do not know what it is"

Will and Jem looked at each other. Will shrugged first.

"It's pretty hard to explain," he answered haughtily. "If you have not experienced..."

"I mean" Tessa interrupted, "you can not... I do not know... read the thought, or something, right?"

Jem let out a snort of laughter. Will opened his bright eyes like saucers.

"Read our thoughts? What horror, no"

"So, what good is it?" They swore to protect each other, I understand that, but are not all shadowhunters supposed to do that?"

"It's more than that" replied Jem, who had stopped puffing and looked grim. "The idea of parabatai comes from an old story, that of Jonathan and David. _And it happened... that Jonathan's soul was united with David's soul, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul... So Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul._ They were two warriors, and their souls were joined by Heaven, and from there Jonathan Shadowhunter had the idea of the parabatai, and included the ceremony in the Law"

"But it is not necessary that they be two men, can they be a man and a woman, or two women?"

"Sure" Jem nodded. "You only have eighteen to choose your parabatai Once you are older, the ritual is no longer allowed, and it is not just a matter of promising to save the other You must stand before the Council and swear that you will give your life for your parabatai. That you will go where he goes, that they will bury you where they bury him, if there was an arrow directed to Will, I would be bound by oath to put myself in the middle "

"Very comfortable that" said Will.

"And naturally, he is bound to do the same for me," Jem continued. "Although I can say otherwise, Will does not violate his oaths, or the Law." He glanced hard at his friend, who smiled faintly at him and looked out the window, where Minato stared at the outside world.

"Wow" exclaimed Tessa, "that's very touching, but I can not see how it can be an advantage"

"Not everyone has a parabatai" added Jem. "The truth is that very few of us find one in time allowed, but those who have it, can draw strength from their parabatai in battle." A rune set by your parabatai is always more powerful than one you wear yourself, or let me put another one in. And there are some runes that we can use and that no other shadow hunter can, because they use our double power"

"But, what happens if you decide that you no longer want to remain parabatai?" Tessa inquired, curious. "Can the ritual be undone?"

"Holy God, woman!" Will exclaimed. "Are there any questions you do not want to know the answer to?"

"I do not see what's wrong in explaining it" Jem had his hands folded on the handle of the cane. "The more you separate, the better you can do with an ascending plan." He looked at the girl. "The ritual can not be undone in a few situations, if one of us becomes an earthly world, then the bond is broken, and of course, if one of us dies, he also has a free life, but not to choose A shadowhunter can not participate in the ritual more than once "

"It's like being married, right?" Tessa commented placidly, "for the catholic church, like Henry VIII, he had to create a new religion in order to escape his vows"

"Until death do us part" sentenced Will, with the miada still fixed in the field, which corrects all the speed outside the window.

"Well, a new religion will not be created just to get rid of me" Jem replied. "Soon will be free"

Will stared at him, then cocked his head, with a gesture toward Minato.

"We have Glas, right? He was named Messiah by Ithuriel and Metatron for his sacrifice in saving us, besides being a vessel of divinities and mythological heroes, I am very sure that we have found our religious figure, is not it?" He said with a sarcastic smile and a funny glint in his blue eyes.

He shook his head. Minato had already heard that the Axium had been told that there was a religious cult towards the Order of the Messiah and even Axium himself. Minato did not like to be revered as a holy deity.

"Do not say that" Jem scolded. "Only that you can be sacrificed to prevent a deity of mythology from entering our dimension, you do not have to be like a divine figure, it's been a place to save your friends and the world. , it is our job to sacrifice ourselves to guarantee the salvation of millions of lives"

"Like Jesus did when he prepared to be crucified and guarantee the salvation of the world" Tessa replied.

"Yes" said Will. "He is our Jesus with blue hair and asian features"

The train trip passed in silence.

* * *

After that the hours passed, the train had reached its destination. In a mess of suitcases, hats and porters, they descended to the platform. It was not nearly as crowded as in Kings Cross, and it was covered by an impressive vault of glass and iron, through which the dark gray sky could be seen.

There were platforms as far as the eye could see; Tessa, Will, Jem and Minato were in the one closest to the station building, where gold-dial watches proclaimed that it was six o'clock in the afternoon. They were farther north than in London, and the sky had already darkened.

They had just sneaked under one of the clocks when a man came out of the shadows. Tessa almost started when she saw him. He wore a heavy cloak, a hat that looked like waterproof canvas and boots like an old sailor. He had a long white beard, and thick white eyebrows over his eyes. He put Will's hand on his shoulder.

"Nephilim?" he asked in a gruff, accented voice. "You are?"

"Holy God," Will exclaimed as he put his hand to his heart in a theatrical gesture. "It's the old sailor who stopped one of the four"

"I am here at the request of Aloysius Starkweather, are they the ones who want to or not? I do not have all night to lose"

"It's us," Minato interjected before Will made another theatrical appointment. "Charlotte Branwell sent us, what's your name, sir?"

"Gottshall," the man replied harshly. "My family has been serving the shadowhunters of the York Institute for almost three centuries, I can see beyond the glamoures, young man, except for you and her." He gestured toward Tessa. "You two present some glamor, it's something I've never seen"

"It's a mundane... an Ascendant," Jem replied immediately. "Soon it will be my wife." He took Tessa's hand protectively, and turned it over so that Gottshall could see the ring. "The Council thought that it would be beneficial to see another Institute besides London, while the young Minato Arisato... is an envoy of the Clave"

"Has mr. Starkweather been informed of this?" Gottshall asked, and his black eyes looked piercing below the brim of the hat.

"It depends on what miss Branwell said," Jem replied.

"Well, I hope for your sake that I have told you something," replied the old servant, raising his eyebrows. "If anyone in the world hates more surprises than Aloysius Starkweather, I have not yet met the bast... gentlemen, sorry, miss."

Tessa smiled and tilted her head, but inside her stomach twisted. He looked at Jem and Will, but both boys seemed to be calm and smiling. They were used to this type of subterfuge, while Minato kept his personality cool and calm, which made it possible for a girl to fall in love with him.

Minato moaned, it seemed like something was about to happen, and it would not be a happy welcome by Tessa's great-grandfather.

* * *

 **Well folks, it took me a while to write this chapter, as well as to look for information from the Megami Tensei saga, which I mentioned as an Order of the Messiah and YHVH as a part of the Great Will. I also placed Scathach who said a comment to put it and made a mention of the final plot of Persona 3.**

 **Soon we will see Thanatos invoked.**

 **Do not forget to comment.**

 **Greetings.**


	5. Chapter 5

**After a long hour of being busy, I went back to continue with this story.**

 **I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

Minato and the group from the Institute in London followed Starkweather's servant through the bustling hall, in the midst of the hubbub and the hustle and bustle, people were running up against them, the smell of coal smoke and food, the half-fogged posters of the Grand Line of the North and the lines of York and the Midlans. Soon they were outside the station, under the gray sky that arched overhead, threatening to rain. A large hotel was silhouetted against the sunset sky near one end of the station; Gottshall hurriedly led them there, where a black carriage with the four keys of the Clave painted on the door waited by the entrance. After loading the luggage and climbing inside, they left; the carriage turned onto Taner Row to join the flow of traffic.

Will and Minato remained silent for most of the trip. Will drummed his fingers on his knee, his eyes distant and pensive. Minato had his gaze fixed on the window overlooking the outside, being the first time in his life that he was exploring one of the regions of England in the Victorian era; people wore the clothes that he had seen in videos and images on television about what fashion was like at the time, but being a witness to using it and exploring places of greater cultural importance was something new for him. It was Jem who was in charge of speaking; he pointed out to Tessa the points of interest: the cemetery where the victims of the cholera epidemic had been buried, and the ancient walls of the city, which stood before them, battlements on top like the finger of his ring. Minato thought it was like London, but on a small scale; even the stores they went through, a butcher shop and a haberdashery, seemed smaller. The pedestrians, men for the most part, who hurried with their chins sunk into the collar of their overcoats to protect themselves from the soft rain that had begun to fall.

The carriage came out of a narrow street and entered a large square; Tessa swallowed. Before them rose an impressive cathedral, with its gothic needles stuck in the gray sky, like a saint Sebastian. A huge tower of limestone dominated the structure, and on the facade there were niches with statues, each one different.

"Is the Institute? God, it's much more splendid than London"

Will laughed.

"Sometimes a church is just a church, Tessa"

"That's York cathedral," Jem explained. "The pride of the city, not the Institute, the Institute is on Goodramgate Street."

His words were confirmed as the carriage passed the cathedral, down Deangate and into the narrow street of Goodramgate, where he rattled under a small iron fence between two Tudor buildings.

When they passed through, Minato understood why Will had laughed. What stood before them was a beautiful looking church, surrounded by walls and grass, but it had nothing of the grandeur of the cathedral. After Gottshall opened the door and helped Tessa down, she saw some tombstones rising from the wet grass, as if someone had tried to start a cemetery there and had lost interest in half.

The sky was already almost black, edged with silver at some points by clouds almost transparent by the light of the stars. Minato could hear the voices of Will and Jem whispering; Before him, the doors of the church were open, and beyond them, he could see the flickering of the candles. Minato reminded him of the suspense films that he had spent a while doing nothing in high school, it was Junpei who asked him to accompany him to see such films, and even to cathedrals of his time.

He could see how Jem was holding Tessa's hand, answering:

"We enter, my fiancee? We challenge the lion together in his burrow"

She put her hand on his arm and together they climbed the steps of the temple. Minato turned his gaze to Will, who was looking at both of them from behind. The situation of the three young Personas was funny to the people of Minato, reminding them of those stupid soap operas of youthful romance that were on television. He watched as Tessa turned to look back, she met the blue eyes of the welshman and pushed them away, making more Personas laugh more.

The interior of the church was small and dark compared to that of the London Institute. Benches darkened by the passage of time ran from one side of the walls to the other, and above them, candles of magical light burned in candelabra made of blackened iron. In the apse of the sanctuary, before an authentic cascade of burning candles, was an old man dressed in the costume of shadowhunter. His hair and beard were thick and gray, and they ruffled around his head; the huge eyebrows almost hid his dark gray eyes; the skin marked by age. Minato could guess that he is ninety years old, but his back was straight and the outline of his chest was broad, like the trunk of a tree.

"You are the young Herondale, right?" barked when Will came forward to introduce himself. "Half-worldly, half welsh and with the worst part of both, as I've heard"

"Diolch," Will said smiling politely.

Starkweather bristled.

"Half blood language," he mumbled, and looked at Minato. "You must be the special envoy of the Clave, are not you?" Young Minato Arisato of Japan" the elder analyzed him. "One gray eye that can be seen, while the other is covered by that dark blue hair of a juvenile delinquent, or rather, a warlock" the old man frowned. "It's amazing that the Clave can bring a downworlder to my property, and I can see in your eye that you're a reserved guy, right?" the blue haired boy nodded silently. "Well, you better not do any magic on my property, understood" another assent. "Good" then he turned his gaze towards Jem. "Jem Carstairs, another brat of the Institute, I'm half-tempted to send you to hell, that presumptuous girl of Charlotte Branwell, imposing your presence on me with almost no favor." He had a bit of Yorkshire accent from his servant, though much less remarkable. "No one in that family has ever had manners, I could go without his father, and I can pass without..."

His penetrating gaze fell on Tessa, and he fell silent, his mouth open, as if he had been slapped in the face with a phrase. Tessa looked at Jem; He seemed surprised like her. She thought to herself if old Starkweather had recognized her as the daughter of her lost great-granddaughter, and just look him in the eye, it was true; Minato had been right about it being possible for him to recognize her, and it was true.

"I present Tessa Gray, sir," said Wiil, making everything go back in its place. "It's a mundane, but it's promised to Carstairs, and an Ascendant"

"Did you say mundane?" the old man wanted to know, opening his eyes wide.

"An Ascendant" insisted Wll in a soothing and silky tone. "She has been a faithful friend of the Institute in London, and we hope to receive her soon in our ranks"

"A mundane," Starkweather repeated, and caught a coughing fit. "Well, times have... Yes, I suppose, then..." He looked at Tessa's face again, and turned to Gottshall, who seemed to be martyred in the middle of all the luggage. "Let Cedric and Andrew help you upload our guests' belongings to their rooms," he said. "And tell Ellen to tell the cook to put four more services for tonight for dinner, I forgot to remind her we'll have guests"

The servant gaped at his master before nodding in the middle of what seemed an absolute bewilderment; Minato did not blame him. It was evbidente that Starkweather had had the intention to make march them and had changed of mind in that same moment. He looked at Jem, who looked as amazed as Tessa; Only Will, with wide eyes and face as innocent as an altar boy's, looked as if he had not expected anything else.

"Well, come, then," the old director ordered without looking at Tessa. "You do not have to stay there, follow me and I'll show you their rooms"

* * *

"For the Angel," Will exclaimed, scratching the brownish mass on his plate with his fork. "What is this thing?"

Minato remained silent and observed his food, it was the first time he ate a dish from a region of England, but he also remembered the dishes that Shinjiro made when he was alive; He had an excellent talent in making a good seasoning. Starkweather's servants, mostly elderly and hunched old women, and a sour-faced housekeeper, had done what they had been ordered and had placed four extra plates for dinner, which consisted of a dark lumpy stew served from a soup tureen. Silver for a woman in a black dress and white cap, so hunchbacked and old that she could see Tessa wanted to stand up and help her. When the woman had finished, she turned and left slowly, leaving Jem, Tessa, Will and Minato alone in the dining room, looking over the table.

Starkweather also had a prepared site in it, but he was not there. Minato had to admit that he would not run to eat that stew either. Of overcooked vegetables and hard meat, it was still less appetizing in the dim light of the dining room. Only a few candles lit the cramped space; the paper on the wall was dark brown, the mirror on the extinguished fireplace was stained and discolored. Minato could see that Tessa felt uncomfortable in her evening dress, of stiff blue taffeta, which Jessamine had lent her and Sophie had fixed, which had turned the color of a brown under that insane light.

Anyway, insisting that they have dinner with him and then not appear was a very peculiar behavior in a host. A servant as frail and old as the one who had served them the stew had accompanied Minato to his room, a large dark cave filled with heavy carved furniture. There was also little light there, as if Starkweather was trying to save money on oil and candles, but as far as he knew, the magic light did not cost anything, since in his time he only saved to pay the light bill.

His room had seemed frozen and dark and more than a little spooky. The small fire that burned in the home had not done much to warm the atmosphere. On both sides of the chimney there was a carving of broken lightning. The same symbol that appeared on the white jar full of water that Minato used to wash his face. He could have guessed that it could be the symbol of the Starkweather, since Jem's ring had a tower with battlements.

There were portraits too, old and heavy, everywhere, in his bedroom, in the corridors, on the stairs. Listening to the dinner bell, Minato had come down the stairs, a carved monstrosity of Jacobite style. He saw Tessa who was looking at a portrait of a girl with long blond hair, with an old-fashioned child's dress and a big ribbon with her head. His face was thin, pale and sickly, but his eyes were bright; the only bright thing in that dark place.

Tessa turned around to look at Minato.

"Ah, Minato, it's you," she said, startled, without raising her voice. "I had not noticed your presence, I was busy looking at the portrait when I was on my way to dinner" she looked at the portrait, with an air of regret. "I guess she must be the girl they kidnapped to be my mother"

"It is," Minato replied. "It's her"

"Adele Starkweather," a voice had said behind them, reading the plaque. "1842"

The two of them had turned to look at Will, who was standing with his feet apart and his hands behind his back, staring at the painting with a frown.

"What's up, it seems you do not like a place, but I do, after all, I'm your great-granddaughter"

Will had shook his head, turning his gaze from the painting to Tessa.

"Undoubtedly, this place is decorated like a family home, it's obvious that the Starkweather have been in the York Institute for generations, have you seen the rays everywhere?"

Tessa nodded.

"He was the symbol of his family," Minato replied neutrally.

"Exactly," said Will. "Here there is as much of the Starkweather as of the is uneducated to behave as if this place belonged to can not inherit an director of an Institute is appointed by the place belongs to the Clave"

"Charlotte's parents ran the London Institute before her," Tessa replied.

"Part of the reason why old Lightwood is so furious with the whole thing," Will said. "The Institutes do not have to stay in the family, but the Consul would not have given Charlotte the job if she had not thought that she was the right person, and only one generation... He gestured with his arm to embrace her. all the portraits, the landing and the strange and lonely Aloysius Starkweather. "Well, it does not surprise me that the old man thinks he has the right to throw us out of here"

"Crazy as a goat, my aunt would have said, are we going down to dinner?"

In a rare display of chivalry, Will had offered him his arm. Tessa had not looked at him while she was holding him. Minato shook his head and walked towards dinner.

Jem was already waiting in the dining room when they arrived, and Tessa sat next to him to wait for his host. He had prepared the place on the table, the plate of stew, even the glass was full of red wine, but there was no sign of it. It was Will who suggested they start eating, although he soon seemed to regret having done so.

"What is this?" he said at that moment, as he stuck his fork in an unfortunate object and lifted it to look at it. "Is... this... thing?"

"A parsnip?" suggested Jem.

"A parsnip from Satan's own garden," Will replied, looked around. "There should not be any dog to whom you can give it, right?"

In Minato's mind, Satan made a face, while his companions mocked him.

"There does not seem to be any pets around here," observed Jem, who loved all the animals, even the shameless and moody Church.

"Surely everyone has been poisoned with parsnips," Will ventured.

"Oh, dear," Tessa exclaimed sadly as she put down her fork. "And I was not so hungry..."

"There were always rolls," Will suggested, and pointed to a covered basket. "Although I warn you that they are hard as rocks, they could be used to kill black beetles, if some beetle bothers you at midnight"

The girl grimaced and took a swig of wine. It was as sour as vinegar.

Will put down his fork and began cheerfully reciting, in the manner of Edward Lear's _The Book of Nonsense_ :

 _There was once a girl in New York_

 _That she found herself hungry in York_

 _But the bread was like stone,_

 _And the parsnips looked like..._

"You can not make York rhyme with New York," interrupted Tessa. "It's cheating"

"He's right, you know?" Jem intervened, while his delicate fingers played with the base of his glass. "You will have to change the verses..."

"Good night" The round shadow of Aloysius Starkweather suddenly appeared at the door; Minato wondered how long he was there. "Mr. Herondale, mr. Carstairs, mr. Arisato, and miss... ah..."

"Gray. Theresa Gray"

"Right" Starkweather did not apologize, just sat heavily at the head of the table.

He carried a square, flat box, the kind bankers used to keep paper, and left it by his plate. Minato saw that there was a marked year in it, 1825, and even something better, three sets of initials: JTS, ARS, AHM.

"No doubt your young lady will be pleased to know that I have agreed to her request and I have been searching the archives throughout the day and part of the night" the old man began in an aggrieved tone. Minato realized that when he said 'young lady' he meant Charlotte. "He's lucky, no doubt, that my father will never throw anything away, and as soon as I saw the papers, I remembered..." He touched his temple. "Eighty-nine years, and I never forget anything, they tell old Wayland when he talks about replacing me"

"We will certainly do it, sir," Jem agreed, his eyes dancing.

Starkweather took a good swig of wine and grimaced.

"For the Angel, this is crap." He put down his glass and began to pull out the papers from the box. "What we have here is a Compensation request for two warlocks, John and Anne Shade, a marriage. Now comes the weird; the request was submitted by his son, Axel Hollingworth Mortmain, aged twenty-two. But of course, the warlocks are sterile"

Starkweather looked at Minato, but not realizing that he is human, and that his hair is natural and his eyes too. Will shifted uncomfortably in the chair, and glanced sideways at Tessa.

"Your son is adopted," Jem clarified, thinking about the revelation Ithuriel said.

"That should not be allowed," replied Starkweather, as he took another swig of the wine he had described as crap. His cheeks began to color. "It's like giving a human child to the wolves to raise him before the Agreements..."

"If there is any clue about his possible whereabouts," Jem interrupted him politely, trying to return the conversation to its course. "We have very little time..."

"Very good, very good" released Starkweather. "There is very little information here about your precious Mortmain, more about the parents, it seems that the suspicion fell on them when it was discovered that the sorcerer, John Shade, had the Book of the White in his possession. A powerful book of spells, understand; He disappeared from the library of the Institute of London in suspicious circumstances in 1752. The book is specialized in fastening and liberation spells: tying the soul to a body, or untying it, as the case may turned out that the witcher was trying to animate things. He would unburden corpses or buy them from medical students, replace them with the most damaged parts by mechanisms, then try to bring them back to life.A group of the Enclave entered his house and killed both warlocks"

"I understand." Will knew the story perfectly. "And the boy?"

"No sign of him" replied Starkweather. "We looked for him, but nothing, we assumed he was dead, until he appeared, with all cheekiness, demanding compensation, even in his direction..."

"Your adress?" Will asked. That information was not included in the roll they had seen at the Institute. "In London?"

"No. Here in Yorkshire." Starkweather tapped the crumpled paper. "Ravenscar Manor, a huge house north of here, I think it's been abandoned for decades, but now that I think about it. I can not imagine how I could afford it to begin with, it was not where the Shade lived."

"Then there is a slight chance that he left something when he decided to leave, he could even have an object that is using it," Minato said, after remaining silent.

"I suppose so." The director of the York Institute did not seem very enthusiastic about the whole thing. "Most of the Shade possessions were taken as booty"

"Booty," Tessa repeated softly. He remembered that term from the Codex. Anything that a shadow hunter took from a doownworlder who had violated the Law belonged to him. It was the spoils of war. He looked at Jem and Will; his kind eyes watched her worriedly. Will's restless blue ones kept all their secrets. Was it true that she belonged to a race that was at war against what Jem and Will were? She glanced at Minato, who maintained a stoic and disinterested attitude. He had explained to them that he was not a downworlder, but a human, according to his story on the train, but his hair and eyes were a trait that only a downwoelder can have.

"Booties," muttered Tessa's great-grandfather with his grave voice. The wine had run out and started with what Will had not touched. "Are you interested, young people? Here at the Institute we have a good collection, I have been told that it makes the London collection look ridiculous." He stood up and almost overturned the chair. "Come, I'll show you, and I'll tell you the rest of this sad story, although there's not much else"

Minato got up from his place and followed the old man to where the booties were, while he continued talking.

"I've never had a very good opinion of Compensations," he explained as they entered another dimly lit corridor and endlessly long. "It makes the downworlder smoke up, thinking they have the right to get something out of us, all the work we do and no thanks, just open hands to receive more, more, more. Do not you think, gentlemen?"

"Some bastards, everyone," said Will, who seemed to have his head thousands of miles away. Jem looked at him askance.

"Totally!" Barked the old man, clearly satisfied." Although you should not use that language in front of a lady, of course. As I said, that Mortmain claimed for the death of Anne Shade, the wife of that warlock. She said that she had nothing to do with her husband's plans, that he had not heard from them. His death was unjustifiable. He wanted the guilty parties to be tried for what he called his murder, and to recover the belongings of his parents"

"Was the Book of the White between what I asked for?" Jem asked, knowing the facts very well. "I know it's a crime that a warlock has such a volume..."

"He was, he had recovered and returned to the library of the Institute in London, where he must undoubtedly continue, the obvious thing was that no one was going to give it to him"

Minato did a mental calculation. When the Shade died he must have been twenty-six years old.

"You was there?" replied the blue haired boy.

His bloodshot eyes danced on him; Minato noticed that, being a little drunk, he seemed to forget what he was talking about.

"If I was where?"

"What if you, sir, were with that group of shadowhunters who went after the Shade?"

Starkweather hesitated, then shrugged.

"Yes," he answered, and his Yorkshire accent became more pronounced for a moment. "We did not take long to pick them up, they were not ready, not a little, I remember them lying on their own blood, it was the first time I saw warlock blood"

"Mortmain never had the slightest chance, right?" Tessa asked in a low voice. "Making a request like that, I was never going to get your compensation"

"Of course not!" barked Starkweather. "Trash, all trash... To say that the woman was not involved, what wife is not up to her neck in her husband's business, and he was not even his natural son, he could not be. father would have used it as a spare part if necessary, he was better off without them, he should have thanked us, instead of demanding a trial..."

The old man fell silent when he reached a heavy door at the end of a corridor, pushed her with his shoulder, smiling under their bushy eyebrows.

"Have you ever been to the Crystal Palace? Well, this is even better"

He kept pushing until the door opened, and a strong light enveloped them as they passed to the other side. It was evident that this was the only well-lit place in the building.

The room was full of showcases, and on each one there was a magic light lamp, which illuminated the contents. Minato noticed that Will was tense, and Jem took it, squeezing his arm with his hand almost to love him.

"No..." he began to say, but Minato decided to take a step forward. The contents of the showcases were something worthy of a museum of rarities in their time.

Ankle boots. A gold reliquary, open to show a daguerreotype of a laughing child. It was stained with dried blood. Behind him, Starkweather was talking about taking the silver bullets from the body of the recently dead lycanthropes to melt them and do more. In fact, there was a handful of such bullets in one of the cabinets, filling a bowl stained with blood. Games of vampire fangs, rows and rows of them. What seemed like lattices of fine threads or very delicate fabric, between crystals. Only by looking at them better did he see that they were fairy wings. A goblin floated with his eyes open in a jar of preservative liquid.

Minato watched as Tessa became pale and uncomfortable at the exhibitions she saw. Minato kept his stoic gaze and continued looking at the showcases, since he did not seem to affect him; being in the Tartarus and battling Shadows of macabre aspects and terrifying rooms made him take it as normal in his old life in the modern world. He could feel how Tessa's eyes were fixed on him; looking for an explanation of how he did not show any reaction in his features.

Minato observed that there were exhibits of some remains of warlocks. Mummified hands with claws. A naked skull, totally devoid of flesh, with a human aspect except that it had too sharp teeth. Blood vials with pasty appearance. Starkweather was talking about how much the warlocks parts could be sold, especially the "marks" of warlocks, in the downworlder market. Everything would be part of a museum, I knew that very well. He could feel some of his Personas in his Arcana frowning, while some magicians and fairies made some negative comments about the actions of the nephilims.

Thanatos or better known as Ryoji made a comment in Minato's mind about the place, and he very much agreed; the place was nauseating and depressing. The atmosphere of death surrounded the room like an invisible smoke, which could only be seen through the eyes of Death. He turned to look at the Institute group; Jem and Will were still staring at the old man with silent expressions of horror; This one held another hunting trophy: a human-looking head placed on a stand. The skin had wrinkled and turned gray, taut over the bones. Emaciated horns came from the cords of his skull.

"I got this from a warlock that I killed near Leeds," he explained. "They would not believe how much he resisted killing him, but I managed to take the life of that bastard and I kept his head as a trophy"

Rangda let out a snarl of fury in Minato's mind; prepared to kill the nephilim, but the rest of the Arcana Magician decided to calm her down.

"It's a good collection, mr. Starkweather," Minato said in a monotone voice.

"Thank you, young man," Starkweather thanked him. "It seems that the exhibitions did not affect you at all"

"No," replied the blue-haired boy without any surprise in his features.

The old man looked curious at the warlock with blue hair, since he did not show any sign of alteration in his mental state, which was very strange.

Jem decided to enter the conversation, with a slight worry in his voice.

"My fiancee had never seen booties before... she can not stand the blood, she is very delicate"

Minato saw that Tessa did not feel well at all. The girl's condition was very oppressive, being exposed to the grotesque exhibitions of taxidermy and the remains of non-human beings made her very sick. The Jacks brothers showed concern for Tessa. The maids took the girl to her room, where she would be keeping the bed after the horrible experience.

* * *

At night, Minato leaned back on his bed and closed his eyes, then he felt as if he were in a chair, which opened his eyes and found himself face to face with the man he had met in his first time in the world of Shadows and Persona.

"It's a pleasant surprise that we meet again, young Arisato," Igor replied with his usual hoarse voice and bloodshot eyes.

The whole room was decorated in a very elegant way. A chandelier that hung on the ceiling, letting its whitish blue light bathe the whole room and let the dark blue color of the walls and patterned carpets shine. There were shelves full of books and some ceramic vases with various flowers. There were furniture with dark blue velvet linings, like sofas, four armchairs and a glass table on a white tablecloth.

The Velvet Room. A place located between dream and reality, mind and matter. The place where all the select ones for the Wildcard are summoned.

"Igor" Minato greeted in a monotone voice towards the owner of the Velvet Room.

"It's also a pleasure to see you, young Arisato" Igor said with a laugh. "It seems that the circumstances of your new trip will soon become turbulent"

On the table where they were, there were several Tarot cards in the form of a rainbow on the blue tablecloth; each and every one of them symbolized their Persona Arcana, and also serves to guess the events that were about to occur.

"The letters have dictated that new problems will be present on your trip, Minato, and that has to do with the two nephilim and the half blood"

"Tessa Gray"

"Exactly" Igor nodded with a spooky smile. "The young Theresa Gray is tied to a dangerous journey that only fate knows, just as it is also linked by an invisible thread to those two nephilim: the young William Herondale who suffers from having a non-existent curse, originated by accidentally opening the prison of a demon, and blaming himself for the death of his sister. Then we have to James Carstairs, the shadowhunter who suffers from an incurable disease by succumbing to a demonic drug, the victim of a vengeful three individuals fulfill an important factor in the scenario that is about to happen" he gestured to the cards on the tablecloth. "Fate knows what you expect, Minato, but somehow, your appearance on that stage took a different direction, a course that will test your abilities and that of the three, I hope you prepare for what is to come"

Minato nodded.

"But you have doubts, are not you, Minato?" Igor continued.

"Raziel and the nephilim"

"Ah, I knew very well you were going to ask!" Igor replied. "Well, it is not normal for YHVH to allow one of its most faithful soldiers to create a race of half-angels on Earth, but with the imminent incursion of demons from the Void and by the prayer of goodwill of that one templar, decided to give permission to his faithful soldier that only the nephilims would help maintain balance with the supernatural world or the World of Shadows as they call it.I was always interesting that this YHVH would not be happy that some nephilim roam the Earth and without the authority to create them"

"I understand, does that mean that there are also copies of the ruling demons of Hell, right?"

"Indeed, young Arisato, they exist throughout the Amala Multiverse, as do the other gods, heroes and demons of their respective cultures"

The blue haired boy nodded.

"How are my friends and the world?"

Igor began to explain everything to Minato; the appearance of the Midnight Channel and the Metaverse in both locations of Japan, but were solved by Minato's successors. Leading the expulsion of Izanami by the Investigation Team and the destruction of Yaldabaoth by the Phantom Thief, without counting on the appearance of a fight contest where SEES and the Investigation Team were involved in a fight that was organized by two new antagonists and the possession of Igor, on the part of Yaldabaoth, the God of Control. It was a profound news for the blue haired boy.

"I see," said the latter in his calm but impacted attitude.

"The cycle is always repeated as many times as necessary to maintain order, young Arisato," Igor told him. "But there will always be individuals who will do everything possible to protect their loved ones, just as you did for your friends, you were a martyr of hope for the humanity of your world"

Minato accepted Igor's sincere praise. When for the first time he had immersed himself in the world of the Persona and Shadow, he had doubted his life purpose in a battle that he was not prepared to participate, but when he began to open his shell and value the sense of friendship and the companionship, Minato had begun to understand the purpose of his existence. His parents had died in that fatal accident and he became cold, but with accepting the contract of the Velvet Room, his attitude had changed, and it was thanks to Igor and SEES for opening up in life. An experience that I would never forget.

"What about Elizabeth?" Minato said, looking around.

A smile formed at the corners of Igor, which Minato was curious about.

"Well, Elizabeth did everything she could to get you out of the Great Seal, but when she heard about your destiny being sent to another world, she felt very happy but at the same time anguished and worried about your well-being. I asked you "

"I always had hopes that you would return, Minato" a silky voice was heard behind.

Looking back, he met her. A cheerful smile was reflected in his fleshy countenance. His golden eyes gave a shining, playful glow. His short platinum blond hair shone with the contrast of the chandelier's light. There she was. Stop straight and elegant. With his uniform and his dark blue cap. It was a beauty.

"I always had hope in your return, but here you are, in the place where everything began" the voice of the assistant noticed a touch of joy.

Minato said nothing, just stared at Elizabeth, like a lifeless statue.

"Elizabeth..." replied the blue haired teenager in a low voice.

"This happy that you're here" there was a happiness in his voice.

"It seems that the Great Will decided to reward you for your actions, young Arisato" Igor replied behind them, with his terrifying smile at their corners.

Minato observed the assistant; could, through his golden eyes, shine a deep desire to be with him. Minato found it confusing, since her first kiss with her was in the park at night, while she was second with Mitsuru. He never had an interest in having a courtship, what had happened in his world was something that was not planned. Always showed indifference in the courtship, especially on Valentine's Day.

After some talks, Igor gave Minato the opportunity to explore the Velvet Room, with Elizabeth as a guide. She showed him some rooms where she and her brothers live, especially hers.

It was like the London Institute, but more elegant, with dark blue velvet walls and tapestries. An elegant bed with a blue of purple parallel lines and two shelves of books. Everything was decorative and elegant.

When Minato was about to tell him something, his words were silenced by the pressure of the assistant's sweet lips. He let the sensation of freshness take over his entire body, until she pushed him straight to the bed, where she fell on top of him, her lip still on his, and then separated. The two had to recover the air after the long kiss.

The silver-haired boy's blue eyes saw a flash of amusement in the assistant's golden eyes. Her face formed on his thin lips.

"I've waited a long time, Minato, you do not know how long I was worried about your well-being" the assistant's smile was radiant. "From the first time I went out and explored your world, a great feeling formed inside me when I took the first steps, I had always been curious about human feelings, and about what is outside in your world" she said, while taking off his buttons of his assistant costume. "Now I know how it feels to lose a loved one, Minato. My sister, Lavenza, the same thing happened when she was worried about her Trickster" rebelled her bodice and her beautiful figure exposed. "I will recover the time we have lost, both of us"

They continued to kiss while their naked bodies united as one and let the pleasure flow through their fleshly bodies.

* * *

The next morning dawned unexpectedly blue and beautiful. Minato had woken up after returning from the Velvet Room and seeing Igor and Elizabeth again. He set the bed and went to the door of his room where he would meet the others at breakfast.

As he climbed down the stairs, he found Will and Jem sitting at the table with breakfast ready, which consisted of half-burnt toast, tea, jam, and no butter. The two nephilims greeted him as he sat next to Will.

"Hey, Glas! Good morning!" replied the young welshman.

"Good morning, Minato," said Jem with kindness and a charming smile.

"Good morning to you guys," he said in his monotonous voice, and looked at his breakfast. I was beginning to miss Shinjiro's food.

"A beautiful lunch to start a beautiful morning, do not you think, Glas" Will said with a mischievous smile.

Minato stared at his lunch.

"What can we say?" Jem said. "We are your guests and we must be educated"

Will looked at him like he was crazy.

"Be educated, come on, Jem. This is not like the breakfast Agatha prepared at the Institute"

"I know, Will, I know very well" Jem shrugged. "But we are in your home and you have to be patronizing because of the generosity that Mr. Starkweather has given us"

"If you say so." Will grabbed the butter knife and cut his toast into thin strips, while Jem ate his breakfast.

Minato shrugged and started doing the same; Something bad, but it was what it was.

A few steps were heard and Tessa entered the room. He had deep dark circles under his eyes, as if they were painted with charcoal. Minato thought that he had a nightmare after that experience in the showcases that her great-grandfather showed them his collection of booties, which had affected her mentally, because she was a mestizo.

"Good morning," Jem greeted with his generous smile.

Tessa dropped into the chair opposite Will. Seeing the look of the welsh shadowhunter, Minato knew that they still continued with their problem, but he also remembered that Igor had told him that Will thought he had a curse for having released that demon who was locked up and was responsible for the death of his sister, but everything was just a lie. Vetala of the Devil Arcana explained that when a demon encloses itself in an object with powerful spells, it loses all its power when it is enclosed in that object. Also that the death of Will's sister was provided by a bite or that he had a sting in his tail, since most demons had poisons in them.

Jem looked at her with concern.

"Tessa, how are you doing? After last night..." He broke off and raised his voice. "Good morning, mr. Starkweather," he said hastily, and gave Will such a push on Will's shoulder that he dropped his fork, and pieces of toast were scattered on the plate.

The old man, who had entered the room still wrapped in the black cloak he had worn the night before, gave him a furtive glance.

"The coach waits for them in the courtyard," he announced, with his usual parsimony of words. "You'd better hurry if you want to come back before dinner, I'll need the car tonight, I've told Gottshall to come back and drop them off at the station, there's no need to be entertained. "

It was not a question. Jem nodded.

"Yes, sir, you have been very kind"

Starkweather stared down at Tessa, one last time, before turning and leaving the room, his cloak billowing behind him. She could not shake the idea that sooner or later her great-grandfather would recognize her as the daughter of her stolen granddaughter, nor could she imagine the pain of the old man knowing that his showed downworlder collection stuffed with his own blood, especially that she is a warlock; that would be a profound impact on him.

"Eat fast, Tessa, before she changes her mind about the carriage," Will warned, but she shook her head.

"At least one tea" The welshman served him, and gave him plenty of milk and sugar, it was much sweeter than the girl liked, but it was so weird that he had a detail like that, even if it was just putting him Hurry, he drank it anyway and managed to swallow a few pieces of toast. The boys went to find the coats and the luggage.

Starkweather had kept his word. His carriage was there, waiting for them, with the four keys of the Clave painted on the door. The old coachman with the long beard and white hair was already in his seat, smoking a cigar; he threw it when he saw them appear, and he sank deeper into the seat, his black eyes looking down at them from under his brows.

"Damn hell, it's the old sailor again!" Will exclaimed, although it seemed more fun than anything else. He jumped inside the vehicle and helped Tessa to climb. Minato was the last; he closed the door behind him and leaned out the window to tell the driver to leave. Minato watched as Tessa sat next to Will in the narrow seat, and felt it brush against his shoulder; He tensed instantly, and she pulled away, biting her lip. The situation between the two was very uncomfortable, something that Minato had seen, but he kept quiet and avoided intruding.

The carriage began to move with a jolt that almost knocked Tessa over Will again, but she grabbed the window and stayed where she was. The four remained silent as they prowled the cobbles of narrow Stonegate Street and passed under the sign of the Old Star Inn. Will only encouraged to tell Tessa with a macabre joy that they were going through the old walls, crossing the entrance to the city, where before they were exposed to the heads of traitors. She grimaced but did not say anything to Minato if he thought it interesting to know the history of the city.

Once they crossed the walls, the city quickly gave way to the countryside. The landscape was not soft and wavy, but hard and imposing. Green hills splattered with gray gorse roamed the crevices of dark rock. Long lines of stone walls, which were used to guard the sheep, crisscrossed the green fields; here and there there was some lonely. The sky seemed an infinite expanse of blue, with brushstrokes of long gray clouds.

Minato could not have said how long they had been traveling when the stone chimneys of a large mansion rose in the distance. Jem stuck his head out the window again and called the driver; the carriage stopped slowly.

"But we have not arrived yet," said Tessa, confused. "If that's Ravenscar Manor..."

"We can not get to the front door like that - be reasonable, Tess," Will said as Jem jumped out of the carriage and raised his hand to help the girl down. The boots of this one were splashed with mud when falling on the humid and muddy ground; Will jumped nimbly next to her. "We have to take a look at this place, we'll use Henry's artifact to check if there's any demonic presence, so we'll make sure we do not go straight to a trap."

"Does Henry's artifact really work?" she asked; she raised her skirts so they would not get embarrassed while the four of them began to advance along the road.

Minato glanced back and saw the coachman, who seemed to have already fallen asleep, half lying in his seat, with his hat tilted over his eyes. Around them, the field was a set of gray and green patches; hills, with steep slopes, with slopes partially covered by pieces of gray slate; grass clipped by sheep when grazing, and some groups scattered with twisted and intertwined trees. There was a certain severe beauty in all this. Minato thought that it would be very relaxing to move to an environment separated from civilization; just the landscape of nature and without listening to the bustle of the cities. While Tessa shuddered to be in an environment far from the industrialized world.

Jem, seeing her shudder, smiled at her sideways.

"City girl"

Tessa laughed.

"I was thinking about how weird it would be to grow up in a place like this, so far from other people"

"The place where I grew up was not very different from this one," Will confessed unexpectedly, astounding the three of them. "It's not as lonely as you think, you can be sure that in the country, people dress very often, they only have to travel longer distances than in London, but once they arrive they tend to stay for a long time. Everything, do the whole trip to stay only a night or two? We often had guests who stayed for weeks"

Jem speak:

"I share Tessa's opinion, I've never lived outside the city, I do not know how I could sleep at night, without knowing myself surrounded by a thousand other sleeping souls and dreaming"

"And dirt everywhere, and everyone breathing on you," countered Will. "When I arrived in London for the first time, I was so tired of being surrounded by so many people that I had to make a great effort and commit an act of violence against them"

"Some would say that you continue with that problem," Tessa replied, but Will laughed, a brief laugh almost of surprise, and then stopped to look at Ravenscar Manor, which stood before them.

Jem hissed at the same time that Minato understood why they had only been able to see the ends of the chimneys before. The mansion was built in the center of a deep hollow between three hills; her steep slopes rose around her, as if they held her in the palm of one hand. Tessa, Jem, Will and Minato stood at the edge of one of the hills, gazing at the mansion. Nothing seemed to indicate that she was abandoned or disheveled; no weeds grew on the road, nor on the paths that led to the stone sheds, and there was no missing glass in the mullioned windows.

"Someone lives here," Jem deduced. He started down the hill. There the grass was taller and it wavered almost to the waist. "Maybe yes..."

He was silent when the rattle of wheels became audible; for a moment, Minato thought that the coachman of his carriage had gone after them, but no, that was very different: a solid-looking vehicle, which crossed the gate and began to roll towards the mansion. Minato pulled out his Evoker and prepared to summon Thanatos as he took cover in the grass, as did Tessa, Will and Jem. They saw him stop in front of the mansion and the coachman jumped to open the door.

A very young girl, about fourteen or fifteen years old, came out of it, Minato supposed; not old enough to hold her hair up, because she was shaking with the wind like a black silk curtain. She was wearing a blue dress, simple and elegant. He nodded to the coachman, and then, as he began to climb the steps that led to the door of the spectacular house, he stopped; He stopped and looked to where Minato, Will, Jem, and Tessa were crouched, almost as if they could see them, although she was sure they were well hidden by the grass.

Actually, the distance was too great to allow the mundane to distinguish her features; he could only see the pale oval of his face framed by dark hair. Tessa was going to ask him if he had a telescope, when Will made a noise; a noise that Tessa had not heard anyone do before, a kind of choked, unpleasant and terrible scream, as if they had extracted all the air from a tremendous blow.

Minato realized that it was not just a choked cry: it was a word; and not just a word, but a name.

* * *

The door of the great mansion opened; the young woman disappeared inside. The carriage rattled along the side of the house to the carriage house, while Will stood up hesitantly. It had turned an ugly grayish color, like the ashes of a dying fire.

"Cecily," he repeated. His voice carried with astonishment and horror.

"Can you know who Cecily is?" Tessa sat up, brushing off the grass and thistles from her dress. "Will..."

Jem was already next to his friend, with his hand on his shoulder.

"Will, you have to talk to us, it looks like you've seen a ghost"

He breathed deeply.

"Cecily..."

"Yes, you already said that," replied Tessa. He heard the harshness of his own tone, and softened it with an effort. It was rude to talk like that to someone who was obviously upset, even if he insisted on looking at the void and muttering "Cecily" from time to time.

It did not really matter; the Welshman did not seem to have heard her.

"My sister" he said. "Cecily, I... God, I was nine years old when I left."

"Your sister" repeated Jem and Tessa, while Minato said nothing; He already knew that it was his sister. Just seeing him reacting in that way and seeing the girl's features made him deduce.

The boy started down the hill, aimlessly, just stomping blindly on the heather and the gorse. After a moment, Jem went after him and grabbed him by the sleeve.

"Will, no..."

He tried to let go.

"If Cecily is here, then the rest, my family, must be too"

Minato, with the Evoker in hand, went to where he was, followed by Tessa, who made a wince when she twisted her ankle with a stone.

"But it does not make any sense that your family is here, Will," said Tessa, facing him. "This was Mortmain's house, Starkweather told us, it was in the papal..."

"I know," replied the boy half shouting.

"In the middle of Yorkshire, alone, and that was our carriage, I recognized it, there's no other carriage in the garage, no, my family is in this somehow, they've dragged you into this damned thing. I have to warn them" Resumed the descent of the hill.

"Will!" Jem shouted at him and went after him, grabbing him by the back of his coat. His friend turned and pushed Jem, not very strong. Jem started telling Will about being content all those years and the absurdity of throwing him overboard for an outburst, and then everything mixed: Will cursing, and Jem pulling him back, and Will slipping on a jumble of legs and arms, until they were stopped by a large rock, a circumstance that Jem took to immobilize Will against the ground, putting his elbow against his neck.

Minato had his eyes fixed on the slope, where a metal figure could be seen in the distance. He squeezed the trigger and the transparent blue crystal transformed into a dark blue smoke, where he took the shape of Thanatos. The Death Bearer flew to where the automaton was, making its coffins rise like wings, carrying death with it.

Will, Jem and Tessa gasped as Thanatos flew towards the automaton. The three could see how the Persona of the Arcana of Death lashed the robot against the floor of the hill, like a bag full of ice. The resonance of the whips raised a smoke of earth and some mini-tremors by the supernatural force. In the smoke, Thanatos resurfaced from there, having the automaton damaged but still in motion; only his upper back with his head intact and his only left arm remained intact, except for a few dents all over his body.

The God of Death threw the damaged automaton to the ground. Will, Jem and Tessa walked with their expressions startled by the appearance of the Person and the automaton. Their eyes were fixed on Nyx's son.

"Minato... who is-is-that," stuttered Jem.

"Thanatos, the Bearer of Death" replied the blue haired boy calmly.

The three paled in fear. They were facing one of the most important gods in greek mythology, and one of the enemies that Minato and his group had faced when they heard him tell his story on the train.

"No... it can be," Will said in a whisper.

Tessa put her hands to her mouth, surprised and scared. His gaze returned to focus on the still-living automaton.

"Guys..." she said in a weak voice.

"A Mortmain automaton," said Jem, his silver eyes fixed on the robot. "That thing has been following us, I'm sure, I've seen a glint of metal from the carriage before, but I was not sure.

"For the Angel." Will grimaced in disgust.

Tessa looked at the Bearer of Death, and said in a shy voice.

"Thank you"

"You do not have to thank me," Thanatos said, bowing to Tessa, which surprised Will and Jem a lot.

Tessa swallowed and did the same.

"Hey, Minato, can I at least change to my human form?"

Minato shrugged and nodded.

A flash of light manifested around Thanatos, revealing the form of a young man who was the same age as Minato. Black hair collected and blue eyes. He wore a white shirt with black sleeves folded. Black suspenders, a watch with crossed straps on the left wrist, black pants and a yellow scarf. The strangest thing is that he had the features of Minato's face.

The three were surprised.

"You can tell me Ryoji Mochizuki" he said in a polite and charming tone.

Still nervous, the three nodded.

Minato looked at the damaged automaton, but moving.

"It seems he's still alive"

"Yes, I was going to destroy him, but he told me he just wanted to make a statement to Will Herondale" Ryoji said, his gaze fixed on the destroyed robot.

Will kicked the automaton's head.

"What do you want with family!" He kicked it again. "Speaks!"

"A warning... for you, Will Herondale... and for all... nephilim..." The creature's broken voice became clearer. "The Magister says... you must cease the investigation. The past... is past... Leave what Mortmain has buried, or your family will pay the price... Do not come near or warn them If you do, they will be destroyed"

Jem looked at Will; it was still a pale ash color, but cheeks burned with fury.

"How has Mortmain brought my family here? Has he threatened them? What has he done?"

The automaton screeched and sparked, then began to speak again.

"I am... a... notice... of..."

Will kicked the metal head, then gave it several times, until it separated from his neck of wires and tubes. Jem managed to stop him by wrapping his arms around him and pulling him away.

"Will," Jem said. "Will, enough"

Ryoji looked at the address where the automat had been.

"Minato, I think there are more of them in the forest, I'll take care of them"

"Do it," Minato said, and Ryoji nodded affirmatively, transforming into Thanatos and flying into the forest, where several automata waited for the order to take action.

The four watched as the sound of explosions was heard with a roar in the area where the fight was taking place. The smoke came out into the forest, accompanied by metal parts and branches that shot out through the air. After a minute, the explosions ceased and the calm returned, with the forest half finished. Thanatos returned from his victory against the automata, to later transform into Ryoji.

"It is done!" replied the God of Death with a cheerful smile. "All the robots were eliminated and I did not let any of them escape!"

The three residents of the London Institute looked at the address where the battle had taken place; there were no words to express the destruction caused by the primordial god of greek mythology.

"Bu-But ..." Will said, recovering from the stupor. "Ev-Everyone will realize the destruction caused!"

Ryoji turned his eyes directly to Minato, who shook his head and summoned Titania, which left a great impression on the trio of the London Institute.

The Sovereign of the Fairieland scowled at Ryoji, making her beautiful features take on an aspect of fear and fulminate him with her crystal blue eyes.

"Thanatos, you really had to do it!" she said with exasperation.

"I'm sorry," Ryoji replied, giggling nervously.

"No, I'm sorry, you destroyed one of my places where I rested!"

"But you can return it to normal, right?" Minato interposed, before another discussion broke out.

Titania recovered her composure and bowed in her green velvet dress with gold rimmed in her skirt, her bust was a C cup.

"It will be an honor, Master," said the Fairy Queen, flapping her butterfly wings and heading towards the battle area. There, a greenish energy formed in his two hands, and the whole forest regained its splendor. The mechanical parts of the automata were buried by the earth and surrounded by vegetation. The whole forest returned as it was before.

He flew to where Minato and company were. She showed a beautiful smile on her thin countenance.

"The whole forest returned as it was before," she said in a warm and gentle voice. His blue eyes fell on the three members of the London Institute. "It is also an honor to help the children of one of the soldiers of YHVH"

The three were surprised by the generosity for one of the most powerful fairies in the Kingdom of Faerie, without mentioning the name of God.

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty," Jem said politely, bowing his head in respect, as did Will and Tessa. Will's heart kept beating like crazy, he could not believe that a powerful seelie queen was in front of them. While Tessa was nervous about being in front of one of the powerful fairies that is mentioned in the work of William Shakespeare.

"It is not necessary to do the praises, I am to the order if they need help" his glance settled on Tessa. "Especially if you need to learn how to control your warlock powers, Tessa Gray"

Tessa's eyes blinked in surprise.

"Learn how to use my powers, your Majesty?" she said shyly.

"Of course!" Titania replied with joy, putting her hands on Tessa's shoulders. "You're a half blood nephilim and demon anyway, right?" the girl nodded. "Well, that means you should learn how to channel and cast warlock spells! I can help you!"

"Thank you for your kindness," he said respectfully.

"You do not have to thank me." Then he turned to Will. "While you, Will Herondale, I know very well of your curse and the loss of your sister"

That comment of one of the sovereigns of the Land of the Fairies put Jem and Tessa in awe, while Will paled in fear. Tessa knew perfectly well that fairies are considered in the Codex as cunning and treacherous beings, capable of analyzing hidden weaknesses for the mere pleasure of annoying and tormenting. But Titania had been very condescending with Tessa without insulting her. Now she knew a secret that Will hid.

Will nodded to the Fairy Queen.

"Yes it is..."

"Because you have no curse"

"What?!" replied the welshman with surprise.

"You already heard me: you have no curse, when a demon is locked in a container, its power is diluted while it remains locked in eternity, what you did in the past was not your fault, you were just a child who was curious and you did not know anything about the do not have to bear the guilt for your sister's you did was a simple accident that only a younger child always does without noticing their you had a curse, I would know, but you do not have it "

For the first time in his life, Will felt in complete shock; the death of his older sister, his escape from home, his rude attitude to keep people away so they would not suffer like his sister, and the insult to Tessa for being a sterile warlock. Now everything had cleared in his mind, as if a giant weight were easily removed. He wanted to cry and laugh, but he held back.

"Thank you," he said, kindly and maintaining that his joy would not burst. "I appreciate it a lot"

Titania made a gentle bow.

"It is my job as queen to watch over my subjects, anyway, you should thank Master Minato for summoning me, and I also made a protection spell in your parents' home as a sign of my generosity"

Jem and Tessa were amazed by the gesture of goodwill of the Seelie. Will was happy.

"A taste in knowing them, nephilims" Titania disappeared in a dark smoke.

After a long silence, Will began to laugh without stopping, causing Jem and Will to look at him perplexed. While Ryoji and Minato looked at each other confused, but at the same time pleased that they pulled a huge weight from the welsh shadowhunter.

Will put his hands on Minato's shoulders, and hugged him.

"Thank you," he said with gratitude and mercy. "Thank you for helping me, I thank you, Minato"

Minato patted Will's back as a gesture of acceptance.

Ryoji smiled cheerfully, while Jem and Tessa processed what had happened.

"Well," Jem finally released. "After all, he is known as the Messiah"

* * *

The five returned to Stakweather's carriage, with Gottshall exasperated and frightened. The driver asked him about the explosions and tremors, just as he did with Ryoji, but Jem told him he was Minato's friend. The coachman only nodded and turned the horses around, back on the long road to York.

The curtains of the carriage windows were open; the sky was full of blackish clouds, which sank on the horizon.

"It's going to rain," Ryoji said, his blue eyes staring skyward.

"Yes," said Minato, who was in the center of his seat, next to Will.

Jem and Tessa had many questions and answers in their heads, questions that Will had hidden without saying anything, especially Jem, who was his parabatai and his friend, but he understood why Will did not tell any of them about his curse.

"Cecily," Tessa said in a kinder voice than she had been using with Will those days. He seemed so sad, so sad, but at the same time happy for his news that his curse did not exist. "Your sister, it looks like you"

Will remained silent, his eyes fixed on the wasteland. Ryoji and Minato felt uncomfortable because they were in the middle of a strange affair; They continued in silence and looked out the window.

Tessa looked at Jem.

"Will, but you wanted to tell me about your curse and the death of your older sister, I understand perfectly, but I'm your parabatai and your friend"

Will looked away from the window and looked at both of them.

"It was something I was not ready to tell you," he said, turning toward the wasteland.

The rest of the way to the city of York passed in silence.

After a long walk that lasted in the carriage, they finally arrived at the York train station. In the middle of the fog, the five left the carriage and took the train to London, which was about to leave. Jem kept the door open for them to enter, as they climbed the steps and entered the compartment.

This time a silence in the compartment, but it was Ryoji who made several comments to Minato that it was the first time he was in a different country and with different clothes. Minato observed how villages, hills and churches disappeared on the train. Ryoji looked at the landscape curiously.

"The landscape is beautiful, like the one in Kyoto" Ryoji said with the look of his blue eyes on the window, remembering the trip to Kyoto with the group of SEES.

"It is," Minato replied calmly.

"Excuse me for my curiosity, you were in Kyoto mr Mochizuki?" said Jem, trying to make possible a conversation with Nyx's son.

"Just tell me Ryoji, and yes, I was in Kyoto"

"I see," Jem replied. It was something he had never experienced; Talk to one of the daughters of the goddess of the night. "It must have been a very cozy trip"

"Of course," Ryoji replied with a friendly smile. "The buildings and the landscapes are beautiful, I was even in the hot springs"

"It must have been an experience to be in the hot springs," said Jem, recalling what it was like to feel relaxed in the hot springs, as in Shanghai.

"Yes, it was, but I wanted to see what England was like unlike Japan"

"Believe me, Ryoji, besides being a city, London has a variety of centers and places where you can meet," said Jem sincerely.

"Thank you"

Tessa was still restless and shy about being in the presence of a deity of greek mythology, but decided to ask a question.

"Ryoji, why are you related to Minato's face?"

That was done by Will and Jem, but it was true, he had a kinship with Minato.

"Well... it's something really complicated to explain"

"I'm sorry," she said sheepishly. "I was just curious"

"Do not apologize, I know you have your doubts about my appearance as Thanatos, I understand"

Tessa remembered the conversation that Minato told them when they went to the York Institute, decided not to. But with a need to know more, he had to ask:

"Do you know God?"

That made the two nephilim interested and curious, since Titania named the name of God.

"Well..." Ryoji scratched his chin, thoughtfully. "I can only say that he is the current deity that all humanity adores, and that he is also very powerful, but I have never known him"

"But you know his name, right?" said Will, participating in the conversation.

"Yes, I know your name," Ryoji answered affirmatively. "All deities know the name of God"

"All the deities?" Jem said, surprised.

"All deities recognize him as the current ruler of human religion, and it is rather curious that YHVH gives permission to one of his soldiers to create them and protect humanity from demons"

"You mean Raziel?" Will replied

"Yes," Ryoji replied.

"In the Codex it was said that Jonathan asked the warlock Elphas to invoke the angel Raziel to ask him for help against the incursion of the demons," said Tessa. "I do not see anything wrong in that God can reject the gesture of good will of one of his most faithful followers"

"Yes, but I also talk about the event that had happened in the Bible: the Universal Flood"

Both Tessa and the two nephilim were surprised.

"But," Tessa replied, confused. "In the passage he said that God orchestrated the Flood for the sins committed by man on Earth, so he chose Noah to do the Ark."

"That was a part that is only mentioned in the New Testament, whereas in the Old Testament a hidden motive is explained: YHVH caused the Flood to eliminate all the nephilous throughout the Earth"

The information revealed was a profound impact for all three.

"God wanted to eliminate the nephilim?" But he told himself that it had only been a mistake in..." Will had begun to say, but Ryoji corrected him.

"It was not a mistake, Will, it really happened. YHVH did not want the descendants of his former subordinates to plague his scenario, like the other magical beings, he created the Flood and eliminated them all, it was a warning of his power if some magical will try to roam the Earth without your permission I know because I could feel the amount of deaths"

The three paled in fear.

"I thought it had been a kind of mundane invention," Will said, trembling with fear. "But now I see that it was true"

Jem thought of the praises the shadowhunters praised Raziel; his skin bristled.

"But God would not get angry for praising one of his soldiers, right?" Tessa replied, there was a touch of anguish in her voice.

"Hmmm, no, I would not," Ryoji said. "In the religion of YHVH, the saints who were devoted to him are praised, as are his archangels, and YHVH would not be angry about that"

The two nephilim sighed in relief.

Ryoji changed the subject.

"Anyway, Titania had said that you only need to learn how to use your power, Tessa"

Tessa remembered the words that the sovereign of the Land of the Fairies said.

"She had told me that I just need to control my sorcerer's powers to perfect them"

"At least you do not use the power of change at the York Institute," Jem said with a smile. "It seemed that Aloysius Starkweather was satisfied with simply handing us the files of the Shade"

"I did not want to see his expression when he discovered that I was a warlock." When I was there, she looked at me several times, I could see the nostalgia in her old eyes, I know he had already realized that she was identical to my mother. he became sad and said solemnly: "I hope that, as he will react to know that I am a half blood between nephilim and demon, it will affect him a lot".

Jem put one on his shoulder gently.

"Only time will tell, and I can accept you as you are, you do not have to worry, you are part of our family in the Institute, just as you are."

Tessa took something out of her pocket and held it up, something that shone in the dim light of the compartment.

"One button" he said very satisfied. "He fell off the fist of his jacket this morning and I picked it up"

Jem smiled.

"Very smart, Tessa, I knew I would be delighted to have brought you with us..."

An access to the cough made the phrase stop halfway. Tessa looked at him alarmed; even Will came out of his silent dejection and turned to look at the boy with narrowed eyes. Minato ready to use Dia in Jem. He coughed again, squeezing his mouth with his hand, but when he pushed it away, there was no blood. Minato saw Will relax his shoulders.

"Just a little dust in the throat," Jem assured them. He looked at Ryoji. "I guess it's a little before my time, right?"

Ryoji nodded silently.

Will and Tessa were alarmed and scared. Jem would not last long without using the yin fen to stay alive.

"Your ring!" Tessa was surprised to remember that she was still wearing it. He put the button in his pocket and then removed the seal of the Carstairs from his hand. "I thought I would give it back soon" he apologized, as he put the ring in the palm of his hand. "I had forgotten..."

He closed his fingers on her. Despite her ideas of snow and gray skies, Jem's hand surprised her for its warmth.

"Nothing happens," he said quietly. "I like how you look"

Tessa felt heat on her cheeks, Ryoji tried not to laugh at the situation. Before I could answer it, the train whistle sounded. Some voices shouted that they were at the Kings Cross station in London. The convoy began to stop when approaching the platform. The commotion of the station reached the ears of Minato, next to the screech of the train braking. Jem said something, but his words were lost amidst the noise; It seemed like a warning, but Will was already on his feet, about to open the latch on the door. He did it and jumped out. He began to run, making his way through the mass of waiters, travelers, bourgeois who went north to spend the weekend with his huge trunks and his belt hunting hounds, the newspaper boys, the pickpockets, the street vendors and the rest of the components of the human traffic of the great station.

The three of them looked at the direction where Will had run. Jem looked at an expression that crossed his face, an expression that said he realized that if he ran after Will, she could not follow them. With another long look, Jem consoled Tessa, while the train stopped.

"Will..." she started.

"Nothing will happen to him," Jem said with conviction. "You know how she is, sometimes she wants to be alone, and I doubt she wants to participate when we tell Charlotte and others about her experiences today." When she continued to look at him in anguish, he insisted softly: "Will knows how to take care of himself."

* * *

 **It took me a long time to finish it, but I did it.**

 **I incorporated Ryoji / Thanatos into the story along with Titania, in addition to putting YHVH in the conversation in the train compartment and added the lemon scene between Minato and Elizabeth.**

 **Comment as you thought the chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Well folks, here I bring you the next chapter of Persona 3: The Infernal Devices.**

 **I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

"What?!" replied the warlock Magnus Bane, exclaiming in disbelief at the welsh nephilim.

"What you heard," said Will Herondale, his smile adorning his corners. "I have no curse, I never had it"

That was hard to digest for the warlock. After a tiring day by removing a spell of amnesia from a member of the Penhallow family, he had wanted to rest. He had sat on the sofa, reading Luciano's book _Dialogue of the gods,_ when he heard the footsteps coming towards him. He thought it would be her, but it turned out to be shadowhunter Will Herondale, but instead of having his expression of pain and despair, it was a happy smile at their corners and a flash of happiness in the blue eyes of the welsh nephilim.

By the time Will explained everything that had happened on the trip to the York Institute, the great warlock Magnus Bane himself could not believe what he had heard in front of the shadowhunter. What he had heard must have been an invention he had created, but when he noticed his blue eyes, he knew immediately that he was telling the truth. No one in the history of the supernatural could summon a powerful queen of Faerieland, but it was not any queen, but the very Titania: the Seelie more powerful than all the queens, and Oberon's wife.

Magnus was still numb on his couch and with the book in his hands. A slight tremor ran through the body to the warlock. There have already been two invocations in the past days: the first was the right hand of God and the second was the scottish hero, but to invoke a powerful queen of Faerieland. Not to mention that the son of the Goddness of the Night was also summoned, which took him to a deep shock in his mind. The warlock with blue hair was much more interesting.

Magnus decided to return to his composure.

"I... I... I can only say that I have no words to congratulate you, or that you have never told me about your curse"

"Yes, yes, I know," Will said, scratching his head. "Well, it was something I was not prepared to tell you without anyone worrying about my condition, but thanks to the revelation that I had no curse, now I am free" a cold look formed in his blue eyes. "The only thing that interests me is that you invoke that cursed to be able to kill him and avenge the death of my sister Ella"

"Summoning the devil you're looking for is not easy" he gestured with his hand. "There are several of them, it would take..."

"That does not matter to me" cut him off. "I do not care if you delay in finding him, what interests me is to sink a seraph blade into his fucking head"

Magnus stared at him, his cat eyes wide open. It was very normal for someone to be very angry about the death of a relative, and he knew that very well.

"I'll do everything I can to find him," the warlock moaned tiredly, then thoughtfully patted his chin. "It's something completely hard to believe that someone like that blue-haired warlock might be able to make such risky invocations. A human wizard and a warlock would die in the process of invoking a fairy queen, but Thanatos" the skin was it stood up by his arms. "No... it's impossible"

"Believe me, Magnus," Will spoke. "I witnessed his invocation, and I saw him destroy half of a forest with all the automatons in. Somehow, Minato Arisato has some tricks up his sleeve"

"Minato Arisato..." Magnus repeated, intrigued and curious about Japan's warlock.

* * *

Charlotte could not believe what she had heard when Jem and Tessa told them what had happened on their trip to Yorkshire: the visit to the York Institute, the information about Mortmain's parents, Will's family who lived in the Ravenscar Manor mansion, the destruction of the automatons by Nyx's son and the repair of the wooded area by Titania, and also the revelation that Will never had a curse for freeing a demon as a child. That was a bomb that exploded in the head of the director.

Now he had lived in the Institute a real god, sitting on a couch next to Minato, eating a sandwich that Bridget had prepared. Something curious, was that Ryoji had the same features as Minato's face, making the whole Institute surprised by the relationship between the two, as if they were twin brothers.

But there was a member who did not come with them: Will Herondale.

"Charlotte," Jem spoke in a reassuring voice, sitting on a sofa with Tessa, where the other sofa was with Minato and Ryoji sitting. "It's not that weird either, when have we known where Will is at night?"

"But this is different, he has seen his family, he never had a curse when he was a child when he arrived at the Institute." Poor Will "The director's voice trembled with anxiety. "I had thought that he had come to have problems with his family, but it turned out that he was not..."

Tessa let out a sigh of sorrow.

"That face that formed when he saw his sister in Ravenscare Manor..."

"Ravenscare Manor," Charlotte repeated, staring into the fireplace. "Of all the places I thought they would go..."

"What do you mean, from all the places I thought they would go to, did you know that Will's family had moved?" interrupted Jem.

She started and sighed.

"Jem..."

"It's important, Charlotte"

The woman looked at the tin on her desk that contained her favorite lemon lime candies.

"After Will's parents came to visit him, when he was twelve years old, and he did not want to see them... I begged him to talk to them, even if only for a moment, but he refused, I tried to make him understand that if they left Maybe he would not see them again He took my hand and said: _Please promise me you'll tell me if they die, Charlotte Promise me_. "She looked down and fidgeted nervously with the fabric of her dress. "It was a very rare request for such a young boy... I told him yes"

"So you've kept up with what was happening to Will's family?" Jem asked.

"I hired Ragnor Fell to do it," Charlotte replied. "The first three years, in the fourth, he came to see me, and it showed that the Herondales had moved in. Edmund Herondale, Will's father, had lost the house for gambling debts. That was all Ragnor was able to find out. The Herondale had been forced to move in. He could not find a trace of them"

"Did you tell Will?" Tessa asked.

"No" Charlotte shook her head. "He had made me promise that I would inform him if they died, that was all, why would he intensify his sadness by telling him that they had lost the house? He never mentioned them, I had come to trust that he had forgotten them..."

"I had never forgotten them" There was a force in Jem's words that caused Charlotte to stop the nervous movement of her fingers.

"I should not have done it," Charlotte replied. "I should never have made that promise, I was against the Law..."

"When Will really wants something..." Jem said, "when he feels it, it can break your heart"

There was silence. Charlotte pressed her lips, and her eyes shone in a suspicious way.

"When he left at King Cross, did he say anything about where he was going?"

"No," said Minato, who had to enter the conversation. "When we arrived, he got up from his seat and ran out of our compartment, that's what we saw"

"He did not say anything," Jem pointed out. "He only elbowed his way through the crowd and disappeared, almost dropping Cyril, who came to pick us up"

"It does not make any sense," complained the director of the Institute. "Why would Will's family be living in a house that used to be Mortmain's, and also in Yorkshire?" That's not where he thought it would take us this way: We were looking for Mortmain and we found the Shade; new and we find Will's family, he surrounds us, like that damned uróboro that he uses as a symbol "

"Some time ago you entrusted Ragnor Fell to see how Will's family was doing," said Jem. "Can not you order it again? If Mortmain is related to them in some way... for whatever reason..."

"Yes, yes, of course" replied Charlotte. "I will write to you immediately"

"There is a part of this that I do not understand" confessed Tessa. "The request for compensation was filed in 1825, and it appears that the applicant was twenty-two then, now he will be seventy-five, and he does not seem so old, maybe forty..."

"It must have been some kind of spell you found in that book you mention" Ryoji replied, catching all eyes on him, continued: "Humans have looked for various ways to prolong their life and avoid death, which leads them to enter the spell books in order to obtain a long youth without getting old or getting sick"

"Ryoji is right," said Charlotte, named the first name of Nyx's son instead of using honorific titles when he had revealed himself as a deity. "There's a way that the mundanes who mess with black magic can prolong their lives, and that would be the kind of spell found in the Book of the White, and for that reason, someone other than the Clave is in Possession of that book is considered a crime"

"All that newspaper business that Mortmain inherited from his father's shipping company..." Jem interjected. "Do you think I would use the vampire trick?"

"The vampire trick?" Minato replied curiously.

"It's the way vampires keep their money over the years," said Charlotte. "When they have been in the same place for too long, people begin to notice that they do not grow old, they pretend to die and they leave everything in inheritance to some lost son or nephew, and the nephew appears, he looks a lot like his uncle or His father, but there he is and he keeps the money, and they are doing that, sometimes for generations... Mortmain could easily have left his company to himself to hide that he did not grow old"

"And pretend it was his own son," Tessa concluded. "Which would also give him a reason to be seen changing to be interested in mechanisms and things"

"And that's probably also why he left the Yorkshire house," Henry added.

"Although that does not explain why Will's family now lives there," Jem mused.

"Maybe because Will's father had financial problems or was betting on a card game?" added Ryoji.

Charlotte's mind lit up at the second option Ryoji said.

"You're right, why I had not thought of that!"

"What is it, Charlotte?" replied confused Tessa.

"Edmund Herondale was known to be a person of rebellious spirit, like Will, he was also known to be a bettor in asar games, maybe that's why they moved to Ravenscare Manor, now everything makes sense. , Ryoji"

"No need to," Nyx's son replied with a generous smile, which made Sophie and Jessamine blush at his charming smile.

"A mystery solved" Jem looked at Tessa. "Do you wear the button on Starkweather's coat?"

Without saying anything, Tessa pulled the button out of her pocket. It was round, mother-of-pearl and silver, and it felt strangely cold in his hand.

"I'm ready to do it"

"Are you sure you want to do it?" said Jem. "It is not an obligation to do ..."

"I'm willing to do it, Jem," Tessa replied firmly in her voice. "I offered to do this mission and I am ready to stop it"

"Thank you very much, Tessa." Charlotte seemed relieved. "We need to know if he has hidden anything from us or if he has lied to us about any of the parts of this matter, his involvement in what happened to the Shade..."

Henry frowned.

"It will be a black day when you can not trust your fellow shadow hunter, Lottie"

"It's already a black day, dear Henry," his wife replied without looking at him.

* * *

"Then you will not help me," Will said in a deadpan voice. With magic, Magnus had lit a fire in the fireplace. In the glow of the dancing flames, the warlock could see more details of Will's appearance: the curly hair at the nape of his neck, the delicate cheekbones and the strong chin, the shadows projected on his eyelashes... Magnus reminded him of someone; that image hovered for years, sometimes it was difficult for him to retrieve a concrete memory, even those he had loved. He could no longer remember his mother's face, although he knew he looked like her, a mixture of his dutch grandfather and his indonesian grandmother.

"If in your definition of 'help' you enter the realms of demons like a rat in a moat full of dirt, then no, I will not help you," replied Magnus. "It's crazy and you know it, go home, you can ask the Japanese warlock for help in your search for revenge"

"I do not intend to expose them," growled the welsh nephilim.

"You're very insistent." The warlock ran both hands through his hair and thought, suddenly and irrationally, about Camille. And he felt satisfied. In that room, with Will, he had spent almost two hours without thinking about her. It was a breakthrough. "Do you think you're the only person who has lost someone?"

Will twisted his face into a grimace.

"Do not say it like that, like ordinary pain, it's not like that, they say that time heals everything, but that assumes that the origin of grief is finite, it's over, this is a matter that I must deal with immediately."

"Yes," Magnus replied as he reclined on the cushions. "That's what resentment has to people who were cursed and swear revenge of their enemies"

"It would be different if he had cursed me to kill all those I love," said Will. "I could avoid wanting to, but to prevent others from loving me... it's kind of weird and exhausting, I have to be someone else all day, every day, someone bitter, cranky and cruel"

"I already like you that way, and do not tell me you do not enjoy at least a little, playing the devil, Will Herondale"

"They say we carry it in our blood, that kind of black humor," he said, looking at the flames. "My sister Ella had it, and Cecily too, I did not think I had it until I needed it, over the years I've learned good lessons about how to be hated, but I feel like I'm losing myself..." He tried to find the words. "I feel dwarfed, with parts of me rolling into the darkness, the parts that are good, sincere and loyal, if you hide them too long, do you lose them so much? Because if there is no one in the world who cares, do you really? exists?"

The latter said it in a voice so low that Magnus had to strain to hear it.

"What do you say?"

"Nothing, something I once read somewhere" Will turned to him. "You would do me a favor by sending me to the realms of demons, I could even find what I'm looking for, it's my only chance, and without that opportunity my life is worth nothing to me"

"Very easy to say at seventeen," replied Magnus, with great coldness. "You're in love and you think that's all there is in the world, but the world is bigger than you, Will, and I may need you, you are a shadow hunter, you serve a greater cause, your life does not belong to you. I can waste it"

"So what Ryoji said on the train was right," Will said, and moved away from the fireplace, swaying as if drunk. "He said that we were created to fulfill a purpose by one of the most faithful soldiers of God to maintain the balance of the supernatural, and it is true what he said: our life does not belong to us, but fighting against the demons and maintaining order, that is our life"

"Who ever said that we owe happiness?" Magnus said softly, and in his head was the image of his childhood home and his mother turning away from him with frightened eyes, and her husband, who was not his father, burning. "And what about what we owe to the others?"

"I've given them everything I have," Will answered, grabbing his coat from the back of the chair. "They have already taken enough from me, and if this is what you have to tell me, then you too... warlock"

He spat the last word like a curse. Magnus regretted his hardness and started to stand up, but the boy pushed him away and went to the door. He slammed it shut. A moment later, Magnus saw him pass by the window, putting on his coat as he walked with his head bowed to face the intense wind.

* * *

Minato and Ryoji were on the balcony overlooking the night city of London. It was night and the stars shone like light bulbs and the moonlight made its luminescence. The chimneys of the houses gave off their smoke, creating a kind of gray mist, while the lights of the poles and houses gave them a supernatural aspect. After all, Minato was in Victorian London.

"I had seen the images of what Britannia was like or England at that time, but here I am looking at it with my own eyes" said Ryoji.

Minato nodded.

"You know, Minato," he continued. "I think this time is very different from the modern one, because everything was electric and more developed in Port Island, but being here is something new, I do not know how these people get used to living like this, but everyone can express their own opinion of how one lives "a friendly smile was adorned at their corners. "I prefer the modern one in my humble opinion"

Some of the Persona expressed their opinions of how the world was long ago in the past, especially the deities and celtic beings.

"Yes," Minato replied, with a direct view of the city. "You're right"

"Besides" he put both hands to his head. "It's kind of surprising for us to get involved in a hidden supernatural society, how in the movies that happen in this era, especially the nephilims or shadowhunters like they call themselves" he shrugged. "Anyway, it's very interesting that YHVH has given one of its soldiers permission to create a second generation much more developed than the first generation, they have a human appearance and they know how to defend themselves, just like humans "

Another nod from the blue haired boy.

Ryoji's smile turned mischievous.

"Excluding Tessa's love drama, Will and Jem" he shook his head. "That's something out of those youthful love programs, but witnessing how it developed turned out to be quite funny and entertaining." Ryoji's blue eyes looked towards Minato. There was a flash of fun in them. "While you, Minato, you took it as nothing at school, you know what I mean"

Minato thought about the kiss he had with Elizabeth and his intimate relationship with Mitsuru, then there were the rest of the other girls, including Yukari and Agis.

"Come on, Minato," Ryoji encouraged him. "You should not feel uncomfortable having two intimate relationships, the guys in the Sea of Souls in your mind say that it's normal for a young man to get a number of girls as lovers"

"We must also mention that we have the threat of Mortmain," Minato replied, changing the subject quickly.

"Huh? Oh, it's true!" he scratched his head timidly while smiling. "So much of talking about love affairs and secret supernatural societies made me lose the priority that you and we are here for. And it's true: Mortmain represents a danger if he were to learn of the existence of Amala Multiverse, he would send to create more of those robots and send them to all the worlds of the Amala Multiverse" Ryoji made a face. "Worst of all, it would be if he ran into Nyarlathotep, Philemon's rival and the enemy that the two old generations of User-Persona could defeat" he squeezed his two hands tightly. "We can not let you get that information"

Minato's gray eyes stared at the night sky covered by the field of stars. Memories of his friends came to mind like the breeze that hit the late hours of the night. His face hardened like stone.

"We will find Mortmain and we will stop him"

Ryoji smiled optimistically at the attitude of his friend, and also looked at the starry sky.

"We will do everything we can do, Minato"

There was no conversation between the two, only the silence of the night and the illumination of the city was heard.

* * *

Tessa was sitting on her dresser, wrapped in a robe, and was rolling the little button in the palm of her hand. She wanted to be left alone to do what Charlotte had asked her to do. It was not the first time he had become a man; the Dark Sisters had forced her to do it more than once, and although it was a peculiar sensation, that was not what made her doubt. It was the darkness he had seen in his great-grandfather's eyes, the faint patina of madness in his tone when he spoke of the booties he had taken. It was not a mind I wanted to know more about.

She had made her own decision to help find Mortmain's whereabouts and she would. It did not have to be reversed. She should have done it for her friends, since they were the ones who protected her, treated her kindly, had taught her a lot about what she really was and had the same goal: to find Axel Mortmain and finish him off. He thought of Jem's kind eyes on her, firm, silvery, and full of faith. He took a deep breath and closed his hand on the button.

Darkness came and enveloped her, surrounding her in her cold silence. The faint sounds of fire crackling in the fireplace, the wind against the windows, disappeared. She noticed that her body had changed: her hands were bigger and swollen and she felt the throbbing of arthritis. His back ached, his head felt heavy, his feet throbbed in a painful way and he had a bitter taste in his mouth. Rotten teeth, she thought, and she felt sick, so sick that she had to force her mind out of the darkness that enveloped her, seeking the light, the connection.

And he arrived, but not like the light used to reach him, as firm as a lighthouse projected him. It came in broken fragments, as if he were watching a mirror break. Each piece contained an image that passed before it, at a terrifying speed. He saw the image of a rearing horse, a dark hill covered with snow, the black basalt of the Council room of the Clave, a broken tombstone... She tried to capture a single image. There he had one, a memory: Starkweather dancing at a party with a smiling woman dressed in an empire-style dress. Tessa discarded it and looked for another one.

The house was small; nestled between one hill and another. Starkweather watched from the darkness of the armor when the door opened and a man left. Even in memory, Tessa noticed that the heart of the old man accelerated the beating of his heart. The man was tall and broad-shouldered ... and with skin as green as that of a lizard. He had black hair. The boy holding his hand, in contrast, looked as normal as a child: small, with pink skin and thick hands.

Tessa knew the name of the man, because she remembered the mention of Mortmain's adoptive father at the Westminster Abbey meeting, and also of Starkweather himself.

John Shade.

Shade carried the child on his shoulders while several strange creatures emerged from the door of the house, like articulated children's dolls, but of human size and with a shiny metallic skin. They had no face. Although, curiously, they were dressed, some with the overcoat of a Yorkshire farmer, others with plain muslin dresses. The automatons took each other's hands and began to turn, as if they were dancing in a village room. The boy laughed and clapped.

"Look at him, son," said the green-skinned man, "because one day I will rule a mechanical kingdom of creatures like that, and you will be their prince"

"John!" A voice called from inside the house; A woman leaned out the window. He had long hair the color of a cloudless sky. "John, come in. Somebody's going to see him! And you're scaring the boy!"

"He's not afraid, Anne." The man laughed and left the child on the ground pursing his hair. "My mechanical prince..."

Before that memory, in the heart of Starkweather rose a tide of hate, so violent that it threw Tessa, free, rolling into the darkness again. She began to realize what was happening. The old man was sinking into sensibility, losing the thread that connected thought to memory. What went and went in his mind seemed random. With an effort, Tessa tried to visualize the Shade family again, and caught a brief flash of an evocation: a shattered room, sprockets, cams, gears, and pieces of metal everywhere; dripping fluid as black as blood, and green-skinned man and blue-haired woman dead among the ruins. Then, that too disappeared, and he saw, again and again, the face of his mother, or rather, the human girl who was exchanged; he saw her riding a little pony, with the determination drawn on her face; saw his hair in the wind in the moors; he saw her screaming and writhing in pain when a wake fell on her skin and black marks stained her whiteness. And in the end, Tessa saw her own face, appearing in the shadow of the light of the York Institute's ship, and felt a thrill of surprise so intense that it threw her out of her great-grandfather's body and back to his own.

There was a slight tap when the button fell out of his hand and hit the ground. Tessa raised her head and looked into the mirror on her dresser. She was herself again. And the bitter taste in his mouth was from the blood that had been made by biting his lip.

She stood up, feeling dizzy, and went to open the window to feel the cold night air on her sweaty skin. The night was full of shadows; It was not very windy, and the black gates of the Institute seemed to rise up in front of her, with her motto speaking more than ever of mortality and death.

She gasped and leaned back instinctively, moving away from the window. She felt dizzy. He shook his head to recover, as he grabbed the sill, and came again, looking with fear...

The voices were heard up on the roof. Tessa could make out Ryoji's optimistic voice and Minato's reserved voice. She let out a sigh of relief and recovered from the shock. He had heard some pieces of the conversation, but he could not hear it perfectly, it was heard far away and they were like ghostly whispers. He closed the window while leaning back in his calm with fatigue. Tomorrow would be another day.

* * *

Minato was in the Velvet Room. Facing were Igor and Elizabeth at his side, who had a beautiful smile on their corners.

"Your progress in the world of shadow hunters has been an excellent development with the links you are forming, Minato," Igor humbly said. "With the way you spend more time with them, the stronger your bonds with your old friends in your world will be"

"But your trip is just going through some bumps in the road," Elizabeth said to the conversation. "The progress of finding Axel Mortmain is becoming increasingly difficult, and more are the dangers that lie ahead"

Minato nodded.

Igor pointed to the Tarot cards.

"It seems that his intervention and the Ryoji have generated a great change in the three members of the Institute of London, especially William Herondale and Theresa Gray, who have generated a great change in their destiny. Young Herondale seeks revenge for the death of his sister after it was revealed that she never had any curse, while miss Gray tries to outdo herself in protecting her friends, because when you summoned Titania, a spark of hope sprang up in miss Gray's heart, allowing him to strengthen the bonds, and also to the Persona of each Arcana"

Minato could feel inside as the power began to grow in his mind. A dark blue light formed on his right hand, which opened it and three Persona cards took shape in his bare hand.

"Thanks to the bond you had with them, you managed to generate three new Persona in the Sea of Souls," Igor explained. "Now they are yours, minato"

Minato crushed them, and felt the energy of the three cards go to his mind. Each of the three manifested itself in his mental zone. The first was for the goddess Circe of greek mythology: a young girl in a white tunic and pale skin, with pink hair and piercing eyes of light green color, with pointed ears, a cane in her hand and a cup of breasts. The second was Diarmuid of the Fenian Cycle: A young man with long black hair holding a spear and wearing green armor. The third was the monkey god Seiten Taisei of chinese mythology: a monkey in a red tunic with yellow edges, a red pointed hat with yellow lines and navy blue pants, which was mounted on a floating cloud and carried a crimson cane with yellow tips.

"Each one of those Persona represents the links you have made with the two nefilim and the half blood" Igor told him with wisdom. "The stronger the bond, the stronger are the three people you summoned, if you want to strengthen your social bond, because you do not help miss Gray in her training, as she is excited and nervous to control her powers"

"We wish you luck in your mission," Elizabeth said with a loving wink.

Minato nodded, leaving the velvet room once more.

* * *

Minato woke up from his dream. She stretched out her arms and stood up from the bed, fixing her first before Sophie could do it.

She went down the steps and looked at the dining room. Charlotte was sitting at the head of the table and Henry was absent, while Ryoji and Jessamine were together on the right side; they were talking to each other, but Minato knew that Ryoji was trying to conquer her, which was working. Jem was there, but Will was by his side, nor was Tessa.

"Good morning, Minato!" Ryoji waved at him, with a cheerful smile.

Minato returned the greeting and sat on the third seat where Jem was.

"Will not Will come?" Minato told him curiously.

"No," Jem replied hesitantly. "It's normal for him to come very late often"

"Will knows how to take care of himself" replied Jessamine, drinking from her tea. "He is very stubborn sometimes, but he always comes back smelly, but intact"

"But this time it took," Charlotte said with concern.

"Jessamine is right, Charlotte." Jem reassured her. "Will is rebellious, but I'm sure he'll be fine"

The director hesitated for Jem's statement and then nodded.

Minato always compared Will to Shinjiro's attitude; both were cold and stubborn. He put aside those thoughts and began to eat breakfast.

A few steps were heard and Tessa emerged, sleepy and tired. Minato knew that this is because of her effort to look for any information through the changed in the memories of the great-grandfather of the girl. A look of concern was formed on the girl when someone was missing; Minato knew what was missing. He saw how she looked at Jem with a worried look.

"Oh, he'll be back, for God's sake," exclaimed Jessamine indignantly. "He always ends up crawling home"

Charlotte was trying not to look nervous and worried, but to no avail.

"Of course he will return" assured this one. "Will knows how to take care of himself"

"Do you think he may have returned to Yorkshire?" Tessa asked. "To be with them, after learning that he has no curse?"

"No... I do not think so," replied Charlotte. "Will has been avoiding his family for years, after his incident as a child, and he knows the Law. He knows he can not talk to them, he knows he would lose." His gaze rested for a moment on Jem, who was very busy fiddling with him. the spoon.

"When he saw Cecily, in the mansion, he tried to run towards her..."

"It was in the heat of the moment" the director replied. "But he came back to London with you, I'm sure he'll also go back to the Institute, he knows you got that button, Tessa, I'd like to find out what Starkweather knew"

"Very little, the truth," said Tessa.

Minato could see a low emotion in Tessa's face. She tried to do everything possible to help in the mission. Odin had heard in Minato's mind that the Changed is an extremely difficult power that only a perfectly qualified magic user can go into the thoughts of that individual and change his appearance for another, which is a magic expenditure and leaves the weak user and no energy. Tessa explained to them all that she had seen in her great-grandfather's memories: the deaths of the Shade was the impetus for Mortmain's wish, longing for justice and revenge, and it seemed a powerful impulse.

"What if Will decides to leave the Clave forever?" posed Tessa. "Would you return with your family to be protected?"

"No," Charlotte replied a little too sharply. "No, I do not think he did it"

 _'Charlotte would miss Will if she left'_ thought Minato. Losing a member of the Institute is like losing a member of a family, that made him remember being in SEES and the problems they went through to reach the Tartarus and finish the Dark Hour.

"But if they are in danger..." Tessa protested, but Ryoji reassured her.

"There's no danger at all, Tessa, the mansion we were in is protected by a powerful spell that Titania had made to safeguard Will's family." He formed a generous smile at their corners, making Jessamine blush and avoid fainting. The face are beautiful. "They are totally safe"

"Ryoji is right, Tessa," Charlotte said. "The spells and magic of the fairies are quite powerful to the warlocks, but those of a queen who made them are strong"

Tessa recalled how Minato summoned her suicidally to a character in Shakespeare's play; her face with perfect features, crystalline blue eyes, a beautiful green dress with gold rimmed, a long gleaming blond hair and a perfect body with a generous bust and butterfly wings. It was the first time that Tessa saw with her own eyes a true fairy queen, being the dream of every girl to know a real girl. The girl nodded, but with a touch of worry inside her.

Sophie entered the dining room with a pot of hot water and deposited it on the table. Charlotte was encouraged to see it.

"Tessa, Sophie, Jessamine" he said, "do not forget that this morning you have training with Gabriel and Gideon Lightwood"

"I can not," Jessamine replied instantly.

Before Charlotte could protest, Ryoji stepped forward.

"Why not, Jessamine?" Nyx's son replied with a touch of charm in his voice, making the girl fall into it, and it was.

"Be-Because it would hurt my head even more, and... and I do not want it to happen again" she said with a touch of stutter and shy for the words of the God of Death.

"Seriously?" his smile began to expand. "If so, why do not I use my powers to cure you of that pain?"

"What?! No! You do not need to waste your power on someone like me!" Jessamine replied with a start and avoiding blushing more.

"It does not bother me at all to cure the pains of one of you who carry the blood of one of YHVH's soldiers," Ryoji told him calmly. "I insist"

The mere mention of God's name surprised Charlotte and Sophie, since Ryoji was not the only one to name the name of God: Mahakala and Scathach also did it in the training sections, raising many doubts for all the members of the Institute.

"I do not serve to make a warrior" insisted Jessamine. "Maybe I can help with Charlotte"

"I do not need your help to write to Ragnor Fell, Jessie," the director replied. "The truth is that I would prefer you to take advantage of the training..."

"But there are dozens of answers piling up in the library, from the downworlders we've asked about Mortmain's whereabouts," Jessamine objected. "I could help you look at them"

Charlotte sighed.

"Very well." He turned to Tessa and Sophie. "In the meantime, you two will continue with the training of the Lightwood brothers" his gaze fell on Minato. "Tessa said Titania would be very interested in helping her use the warlock powers, which I agree she can learn to use." Charlotte saw Minato nod silently. His gaze returned to Tessa again. "When you finish your shadowhunter training, you will begin to train with Titania in the practice of magic, so you can perfect your powers"

"Yes," Tessa replied without hesitation.

"Excellent"

From the kitchen, came the soft voice of Bridget who was trilling:

 _¿Should I be tied while you are free,_

 _I must love a man who does not love me,_

 _I must be born with so little reason_

 _How to love a man who will break my heart?_

Minato moaned when he heard the song, while Ryoji thought it was a bit humorous.

"I think I can help in finding Will, too," Ryoji pointed out.

Charlotte sighed in relief.

"Thank you, Ryoji"

They finished eating breakfast, and each returned to his own duties, while Bridget sang another ballad.

* * *

In the training room, the doors opened and the Lightwood brothers entered, followed by Jem and Ryoji. The silver-haired young man winked at Tessa before leaving and closed the door behind him.

Gideon went straight to Sophie.

"A good choice of leaf" he said, with a tone that revealed a slight surprise. Sophie, who had a long knife, blushed, pleased.

"Good" he looked at Minato, swallowing hard. "We are ready to continue"

The young man with blue hair nodded and activated his Evoker on his temple. The splendid figure of Scathach was formed from the smoke. The Lightwood brothers had to stay stoic to see the well-built body of the legendary scottish warrior.

The Warrior Lady of the Shadows looked at Sophie's knife.

"A training how to use knives, right?" said the Scottish warrior, her voice was like that of a teacher who was ready to evaluate her students.

"Yes," replied Gabriel Lightwood, keeping a little calm. "Today we are going to teach them how to use knives in combat, ma'am"

"An excellent choice," agreed Scathach. "I want to observe how the girls perfect it"

Gabriel nodded, grabbed a knife from the shelves and handed it to Tessa.

"Notice the weight of this sheet"

Tessa tried to feel the weight, as she struggled to remember what he had said about where to balance her in the palm and how.

"It's very light," she said.

"Right," Gabriel told him earnestly. "Knives vary in shape, but they're easy to use in a fight, all you have to do is put yourself in a fighting position and start throwing punches with the blade, understand?"

Tessa nodded and began to remember the movements that Scathach and the Lightwood brothers explained to both of them. They practiced how to hold the bladed weapons and how to balance them, while cutting the air, without the tip going down or slipping from their hands. Scathach showed them the postures and quick movements of how to use them; whose skills captivated the two students, who nodded and began to do them. Being taught by the legendary Scottish warrior that is only mentioned in the ballads of the Ulster Cycle is an impressive experience for Tessa, as she had read it in some stories, but being trained by the Warrior Lady herself was something extraordinary. Sophie seemed to enjoy being taught by Gideon, who was always a methodical and careful instructor, although he tended to speak in Spanish whenever the maid did something wrong.

"Oh, Dios mio!" He exclaimed in that tongue, as he tore the sheet from where it had been nailed, point down, on the floor. "Did we try it again?"

"It seems that you, Gideon, have an excellent merit in being patient" said Scathach with her arms crossed over her bust.

"I am, master Scathach," said Gideon politely.

"Interesting" the look of the scottish warrior focused on the maid. "Sophie, you had a failure in your movement, which you would be disarmed in a future confrontation"

"I'm sorry, master Scathach," said the maid, bowing her head in apology. "I promise that I will practice enough to not make that same mistake again"

"It's a wise decision" smiled Scathach. "Please, continue"

Minato, who was standing against the wall in a corner, saw how his Person's training had perfectly trained Tessa and Sphie with their routine, and with the help of the Lightwood brothers, of course. Seeing them training made him remember when Akihiko had taught him how to defend himself in a fight, using boxing as a training method, just like the two girls were doing. The movements of the two girls using the knives had improved, just as they used the arms and legs as an emergency method if they did not carry a gun to the hand. He could see that the scottish warrior herself was proud of the development of the girls.

Something that caught Minato's attention, and also Scathach, was that the elder of the Lightwood felt very close in the training of the maid of the Institute, which did not go unnoticed. Sophie was lovely, but she was a mundane and a servant, apart from the scar she had received from her previous master where she had previously worked, but it was still pretty, which Minato recognized. Gideon had treated Sophie very well during the trainings, including in the previous one that she had with Mahakala on how to use a sword. Somehow, the two began to get closer, as if it were a relationship between teacher and student, which I had already seen in soap operas.

After having finished with the cuts, they decided to start with the exercise of throwing the knives. Scathach explained to both of them the basic movements they must make of how to throw them. They put two circular training models with a red circle inside, and started throwing them. Each of the Ligthwood brothers supervised their two students how they worked at throwing the knives: Tessa failed three times to hit him in the center, but managed to do so on the fourth occasion, while Sophie did the same on the fifth occasion. They started badly, but progressed little by little.

Having finished the training with the knives and how to throw them, it was the turn of Tessa to learn to use her demonic magic. Minato triggered the trigger and summoned Titania. The Fairy Queen explained to Tessa the essential bases in the use of her powers: first they did an exercise of channeling their inner power, then taught her how to throw a fireball and electric beams, as well as how to create a shield and perform a healing spell. Circe also wanted to participate in the training of the girl, which made Tessa feel more pressured, but also helped her in her practices

After completing the internship, Minato walked down the aisle of the Institute and went to the dining room. There, all present sitting in their respective seats. Ryoji was next to Jessamine and Henry, but the chair that belonged to Will was still empty, he had not returned yet. Jem was sitting in his place, but Tessa's was empty; she was still in her room while changing her training clothes. Also, there was someone new in the dining room. A tall man was sitting almost at the head of the table, near Charlotte, and it was green. Not a dark green, but faint, like that of light reflecting in the sea. His hair was white as snow. Two elegant horns curved from his forehead.

"Minato, I want you to meet the High Warlock of London, Ragnor Fell," said Chalotte. "Mr. Fell, this is Minato Arisato"

Minato could see how the green-skinned warlock looked at him with great curiosity and a raised eyebrow. The two shook hands and Minato sat in his chair. The features that warlocks had were interesting to Minato; because they were the fruit of the fertilization of a demon in the womb of a human woman, and they were born with some unusual features; the green-skinned warlock's appearance was one of them.

"I can say, Charlotte, it's very rare that you have a warlock living in the Institute," Fell said with a slight curiosity in his voice. His fingers had some joints; a feature that the warlocks presented.

"Well... let's say Minato is a very... special case," the director said stutteringly.

"That he has made a heroic audacity?"

"Yes. He saved us from the automatons when they entered the Institute," Jem said to the conversation.

Ragnor Fell was impressed.

"Seriously?" the warlock stared at him. "Curious, it is very strange and curious that a warlock like him can participate in activities of shadowhunters"

"He has been quite useful with us in our search for Mortmain"

"I see," said Fell, whose eyes analyzed Minato and Ryoji. "But I find it curious that you look a lot like you, something that is very rare that one warlock has the mark of a warlock, and the other does not"

The members of the Institute were uncomfortable because of Ragnor Fell's observation. It was also more uncomfortable to tell the truth to him, which Charlotte had to do.

"Yes, it was for us," replied Charlotte, trying to keep calm. "It's a very strange thing that Ryoji has not inherited a warlock feature"

Another uncomfortable moment.

"Really? Very interesting..."

A few steps were heard, and Tessa appeared dressed.

"Ah, Tessa, good thing you came in. I want you to meet Ragnor Fell, High Warlock of London," Charlotte replied.

"The Changeling that Magnus has spoken to me a lot. The young woman who does not have a witch's mark either" Fell was amused by the surprises when he arrived at the Institute.

The girl swallowed and replied:

"No, no mark"

He smiled, fork still in his hand.

"Quite peculiar situation, but we'll leave that for later" Fell's human eyes focused on Charlotte. "You asked me to talk to you about your work"

"Yes," replied Charlotte, going back to the matter. "I wanted to know if you knew the Shade"

"I knew them" Fell began to cut the meat off his plate. "Shade was a bit crazy, with his obsession with watches and mechanisms, his death was a shock to the underworld, the tension spread throughout the community, and there was even talk of revenge, although I do not think it was the action"

Charlotte leaned toward him.

"Do you remember the son, his adopted son?"

"I knew of their existence, that two warlocks get married, that they adopt a human child in an orphanage, weird, but I never saw it, warlocks ... we live forever, a period of thirty, or even Fifty years, between us is strange, but now that I know who the boy has become, I wish I had met him. Do you think it's worth trying to find out who his real parents were?"

"Certainly, if it can be ascertained, any information we can obtain about Mortmain can be useful"

"I can tell you that he put that name on himself," Fell pointed out. "It looks like a shadow hunter's name, it's the kind of name someone had something against the nephilim, and a pretty black sense of humor, he would get in. Mort main..."

"The hand of death" contributed Jessamine, who was very proud of her french.

"Smart girl," Ryoji said in a lovely voice, making the girl smile and avoid blushing.

"I heard that Will's parents moved to Ravenscare Manor, Will's father got involved in a bet?" replied Charlotte.

"Knowing the father, yes," said Fell. "He may have been involved in a card game and he would have lost." Edmund Herondale was known to be impulsive and rebellious, as was his son, I can only assume that he was indebted to his family, and, Mortmain decided to help them with his economic problem offering the house of the Shade as the new home for them"

"No doubt" Charlotte's tone was firm. "Ragnor, I want to know if there is a Mortmain subordinate guarding the home where the Herondales live, and I want to make sure they are safe"

"I understand, I will do everything possible to protect Will's family and I will find out if one of Mortmain's faithful or his machines knows about his parallel"

"Thank you"

Ragnor twisted the fork.

"That will be expensive"

"Yes," Charlotte agreed. "I am willing to pay"

The green-skinned warlock smiled to the side.

"Then I am willing to support the sheep"

* * *

The rest of the lunch passed in the middle of an uncomfortable conversation. Minato observed that Ryoji flirted with Jessamine; Jem, much quieter than usual; Henry, muttering equations for himself; Tessa was still worried that Will was not showing up, and Charlotte and Fell, finalizing their plans for the protection of the Herondale family. That made him remember when the whole group of SEES got together and discussed the plans to enter the first floor of the Tartarus.

After finishing lunch, Minato decided to start a conversation with Ryoji in Jem's room.

"Was there a novelty about Will?" Minato asked in a monotone voice.

"Yes" Ryoji smirked.

Minato inclined his head, confused.

Jem had to sigh.

"We discovered that Will is in a cruel part of the city, that's where he should possibly be"

Minato remembered when Junpei and Yukari entered an alley in search of Shinjiro; They met some thugs, but it was the same Shinjiro who saved them from the thugs and warned them never to return to the area. Each city always has its own marginal zone, including the most popular ones.

"When are we going?" Minato asked directly.

"Today. Cyril is ready to help us," Jem said.

The door to the room opened behind them. Tessa was dressed in a jacket.

"Tesa..." Jem began to say, surprised.

"I'm going with you," she said firmly.

"Hmmm, Tessa," Ryoji replied. "I do not think you ..."

"I will not give up my decision" she asked petulantly. "Magnus sent me a letter telling me that he saw him last night when he left his residence, that's why I'm going with you"

"Tessa..." Jem let out a tired moan. "I know you care so much about Will..."

"Of course!" she exasperated in a low voice, without anyone hearing her speak loudly. "It's your parabatai, if he suffers a damage, you also receive it, and that's why I do not want something to happen to you, please let me go with you"

There was a touch of determination in his voice, which surprised Jem, making him nod hesitantly and tired.

"You can come with us"

Tessa nodded silently, and followed the boys in silence, closing the room behind them without making any noise.

When the four of them left the Institute, the wind blew through the courtyard in small gusts of dry leaves that swirled like dancing fairies. The sky was laden with a yellow mist; the moon was a golden disk behind her. The words in latin on the fence of the Institute seemed to shine, highlighted by the light of the moon: "Pulvis et umbra sumus"

Cyril, who waited with the carriage and the two horses, _Balios_ and _Xanthos_ , seemed relieved to see them; He helped Tessa into the vehicle, followed by Jem, Ryoji and Minato entering the carriage. The servant climbed back into the driver's seat. Jem, sitting next to Tessa, held the1 dagger with his right hand and traced a rune on the back of that hand with the tip of the stela. For Minato, he looked like all the runes the nephilim carried on their bodies; some wavy lines, intermingled and illegible, twisting to connect with each other, forming thick black patterns.

He looked at his hand for a long time, then closed his eyes, his face immobile in intense concentration.

"Brick Lane, near Whitechapel High Street" he said, half to himself; he put the dagger and the wake back into his belt; He pulled his body out the window, and Minato heard him repeat those words to Cyril. A moment later, Jem was back in the carriage, closing the window to the cold air, and they were already rattling on the cobblestones.

Minato saw Tessa take a deep breath. The girl wanted to look for Will with all her cravings; his expression of concern said it all.

"It looks like it will be an incredible nighttime adventure in Victorian London," Ryoji whispered, making a bit of humor.

Minato agreed with Ryoji: a nighttime adventure in Victorian London.

* * *

Minato left the curtain on his side of the carriage, and stared at the windowpane, as they circled Fleet Street to Ludgate Hill. The yellow fog had thickened, and I could see little through it: the dark silhouettes of people rushing here and there, the cloudy letters of the posters painted on the facades of buildings. From time to time, the fog dispersed, and Minato caught a clear picture: a girl, the same age as Alice and Ken, carried a bunch of withered lavender, leaning against a wall, exhausted; a sharpener dragging his car heavily towards home; a sign of matches Bryant and Mary's Lucifer suddenly hanging from the darkness, making Lucifer himself in Minato's mind grimace, while the Persona made sarcastic remarks about the name of the poster.

"Disposable" said Jem. He was leaning back against the seat in the seat next to Tessa, eyes shining in the dim light.

"Who?" Ryoji said, trying not to laugh what the last word on the poster said.

"That's the name of the matches, disposable, because the strips are used once, they also call the girls who work in the match factories"

"How cruel" Minato answered quietly.

"We're going through a cruel part of the city, the East End, the poor sweeps." He leaned forward. "You have to be careful and do not separate"

Minato and Ryoji nodded.

"Do you know what Will is doing there?" Tessa asked, with some fear of the answer. They were passing a great mass of Saint Paul, which rose above them like the brilliant marble tomb of a giant.

Jem shook his head.

"No. I've only captured the image of the street and the locality, through the spell that Ryoji made, but I would say there are a few 'innocent' reasons why a gentleman could 'go down to Chapel' after dark."

"I could be playing..."

"It could be," he acknowledged, but it sounded as if he doubted it.

"You said you would feel, here" Tessa put a hand to her heart. "If something happened to him, is it because they are parabatai?"

"Yes"

"Being parabatai is more than just being comrades in arms," Ryoji explained. "They both share a connection through their rune that unites them as brothers, an invisible bond that ties them together, that's something I've always seen among humans"

"So being parabatai is more than taking care of one another" commented Tessa. "Like something... mystical"

"Something like that" Ryoji shrugged.

Jem decided to contribute to the conversation.

"We are nephilim, all the steps of our life have some mystical component... Birth, death, marriage... everything has a ceremony, there is also a ceremony if you want to become someone's parabatai. It is not a commitment that is made lightly..."

"You asked Will", supposed Tessa.

Jem shook his head, still smiling.

"He asked me," he replied. "Or rather, he told me, we were practicing with long swords, in the training room, he asked me and I said no, he deserved someone who would live, who could take care of him all his life. I could take the sword from my hand, and if I succeeded, I had to agree to be his blood brother"

"And he took it from you?" Ryoji said curiously.

"In just nine seconds" Jem laughed. "He pinned me to the wall, I should have been training without my knowing, because I would never have accepted the bet if I thought he was so good with the sword." His weapons had always been throwing knives." He shrugged. "We were thirteen years old, they made us the ceremony when we turned fourteeth. Now three years have passed, and I can not imagine not having a parabatai"

"Why did not you want to do it?" replied Minato, after sitting in his seat without saying anything. "When I asked you at the beginning"

Jem ran his hand through his silver hair.

"The ceremony binds you," he replied. "It makes you stronger, we both have the strength of the other, so we can work seamlessly together during a fight, there are runes that you can use if you are part of a pair of parabatai that, if not, can not be used. you can only choose a parabatai in your life, you can not have a second, even if the first one dies, I did not think it was a good option, considering my situation"

"That seems like a very hard rule," commented Tessa.

Then, Jem said something in a language that Tessa did not understand. It sounded like "Khal epa ta kala"

She scowled at him.

"That's not latin, right?"

"No, it's not latin," Ryoji replied. "It's greek, and it means that what is worth having, good, noble and honorable things, are hard to come by and it also means something else"

Tessa swallowed.

"What?"

"Beauty is cruel," Jem contributed.

"Those words have a special appeal for you, right?" Tessa asked in a low voice. "Those dead languages, why?"

That caught Minato and Ryoji's attention.

"I'm not sure," he answered, "although I think it bears some relation to the clarity they have. Greek, latin, sanskrit ... they contain pure truths, before we cram our tongues with so many useless words."

"It seems that you, the nephilim, have a good study of the different types of language," Ryoji observed.

"Yes, learning several types of languages allows us to develop a greater understanding of their meaning, and also allows us to meet other Institutes of different cultures and languages, just as you speak good english, Minato"

"I only had a little help" he shrugged.

"There is also a rune that allows you to speak different types of language, including that of demons"

"But, what about your language?" Tessa asked. "The one you grew up talking about"

His lips tugged at him.

"I grew up speaking english and mandarin chinese" he answered. "My father spoke english, and chinese we moved to Shanghai, it was even dialect there is almost unintelligible to someone who speaks mandarin"

"Say something in mandarin" Tessa asked smiling.

"Ni hem piao liang"

Seiten Taisei laughed and shook his head while saying "young" in Minato's mind.

"What have you said?" said Tessa confused.

"I know you're undoing your bun, come on," he said, and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. Tessa felt the blood rise hot to her cheeks, and she was glad of the dim light of the carriage, but Ryoji and the rest of the Persona of the Arcane of Minato were told about it graciously. "You must be careful with the hair," he warned; he slowly withdrew his hand and held his fingers for a moment on Tessa's cheek. "You do not want to give the enemy anything where he can grab you"

"Oh... yes... of course." The girl responded with a stutter.

Minato observed the window. The yellow fog hung heavy over the city, but I could see enough. They were on a narrow street, although it might be wide compared to others in London. The air seemed dense and greasy, laden with coal dust and fog, and a crowd flooded the space. Filthy, dressed in rags, they fell against the walls of the dilapidated buildings, watching the carriage like hungry dogs following the advance of a bone. Minato saw a woman in a shawl, with a basket of flowers hanging from one hand and a baby covered with that shawl or with her head resting on her shoulder. His eyes were closed, his skin pale as curdled milk; He looked sick, or dead. Barefoot children, as dirty as street cats, played in the streets; there were women sitting, one against the other, at the entrances to the buildings, clearly drunk. The men were the worst, thrown against the walls of the houses, dressed in dirty and shoddy coats, with the expression of despair on their faces as if engraved on a tombstone.

The slums of Port Island Tatsumi were darker than the streets of Victorian London. Minato maintained his stoic and cold expression, showing no emotion. Ryoji remained just like Minato.

"The rich londoners of Mayfair and Chelsea like to take walks at midnight in districts like this," Jem explained, with a bitter voice very rare in him.

"Do they stand and... help in some way?" Tessa asked in a delicate voice because of what she saw through her window.

"Most do not, they just want to watch so they can go back home and talk at their next party that they've seen real 'chasseurs' or 'corners' or 'Jemmys Shake', most never get off the coach or the bus."

"What is a Jemmys Shake?" replied Minato.

"A cold and ragged beggar," he replied. "Someone who will surely die of cold"

Minato recounted in the accident where his parents died. It was fortunate that he could be in the orphanage or he would be in the street without anyone taking care of him. He was very lucky.

The carriage stopped at any corner. Across the street, the light of a bar was projected on the sidewalk; a steady stream of drunks also emerged from the establishment, some with women leaning on the arm, whose brightly colored dresses were stained and dirty, and their cheeks very powdered. Somewhere, someone was singing Cruel Lizzie Vickers.

Jem took Tessa's hand.

"I can not make you a glamor that protects you from the eyes of the mundanes," he warned. "So keep your head down and stay still by my side" he looked at Minato and Ryoji. "They could maintain a low profile without causing any fuss"

"We will, but it is possible that something is out of our control," Ryoji replied.

"All right," Jem said, and focused his gaze on the bar. "Let's go"

After having lowered the four of the carriage, they decided to go to the direction where they were going. They received some curious looks, but they paid no attention to them. They headed for a red door. There were three steps before them, but unlike those of other stairs on the street, they were empty. Nobody was sitting on them. Jem climbed quickly, pulling Tessa behind him, followed by Minato and Ryoji. He knocked on the door with force.

After a moment, it was opened by a woman dressed in a long red dress, so tight that Minato showed no expression of surprise. His dark hair was pulled back over his head and held by a pair of golden toothpicks. The skin was very pale, and her eyes were painted with kohl, but, looking at it in more detail, Minato realized that she was not a foreigner. His mouth was a red bow. The corners curled at the sight of Jem.

"No," she said. "No nephilim"

He went to close the door, but Jem raised his cane; A sharp blade came out of the base and held the door.

"No problem," he said. "We did not come from the Clave, it's personal"

She narrowed her eyes.

"We are looking for someone," Ryoji added. "A friend, take us with him and we will not bother you anymore"

Hearing that, she leaned back, trembling with fear, as Ryoji emitted her aura to intimidate her.

"I know who you're looking for," he replied. "There's only one of yours here"

She pulled away from the door, wobbly from the fright she was carrying. Jem's spit came back into his deck with a snap, and he ducked under the lintel; The four advanced.

On the other side of the door was a narrow corridor. A thick odor permeated the air, like the smell left on Jem's clothes after he had taken his drug. Without realizing it, Tessa squeezed her hand tighter.

"This is where Will comes to buy the... to buy what I need," Jem whispered, tilting his head until his lips almost touched the girl's ear. "Although why is he here now..."

The woman who had opened the door looked back, turning her head as she walked down the hall. There was a large opening in the back of her dress, showing a large part of her legs and the end of a long, thin forked tail, with white and black marks like the scales of a snake.

 _'It's a warlock'_ thought Minato, and he saw that Ryoji had a raised eyebrow when he looked at the girl's tail. During his stay in Victorian England, he had seen many strange things taken out of fantasy stories and united in the victorian era, something very much seen in the modern culture of the XXI st century. But the warlocks were the beings that caught his attention: they had different skin colors, eyes of animals and factions of fauns, which was very interesting for him, but at the same time annoying for Minato himself; since he had dark blue hair and blue eyes, considering it as a warlock, but it was not.

The corridor opened into a large room, with the walls painted dark red. Monumental lamps, with the sides carved and painted with delicate geometric figures that were projected on the walls, hung from the ceiling. Along the walls there were beds lined up, in bunk beds, as in a boat. A round table of considerable dimensions dominated the center of the room. Several men were sitting there, their skin the same red as the walls and their black hair cut by brush. His hands ended in almost black claws, which were also cut, probably to allow them to count, remove and mix the different powders and concoctions that were before them. Under the light of the lamp, the powders seemed to glow, like powdered jewels.

"Is it an opium den?" Tessa asked Jem in a whisper.

He was looking around the room anxiously. Minato felt his tension, a buzz beneath his skin, like the rapid flutter of a hummingbird.

"No" He seemed troubled. "Not exactly, especially there are drugs of demons and fairy dust, those men at the table are ifrits, warlocks without powers"

The woman in the red dress was leaning over the shoulder of one of the ifrits. They both looked at the four, especially Minato and Ryoji. The witch straightened and went to them, moving her hips like a metronome under her tight satin dress.

"Madran says we have what you want, boy of silver," She wanted to caress the shadowhunter's cheek with her red nail, but the aura emitted by Nyx's son stopped her from doing so. "You do not have to pretend"

"I already told you, we're here for a friend," he replied dryly. "A nephilim, blue eyes, black hair..." He raised his voice. "Ta xian zai zai na li?"

The woman looked at him for a moment and then shook her head.

"You're a fool" he released. "There is very little left of yin fen, and when it's over, you'll die, we try to get more, but lately the demand..."

"Save us your attempts to sell your merchandise," Minato replied coldly, giving him a deep, icy look from his blue eye. "Where is our friend?"

The warlock hissed in fright and pointed to one of the cots bolted on the wall.

"There"

Jem paled as the three of them stared at where he indicated. Its occupants were so still that at first Jem had thought that the beds were empty, but then he realized that in each one there was a body lying down. Some were on their side, arms hanging over the edge of the bed and hands outstretched; Most of them were on their backs, with their eyes open on the roof or the bunk above them.

Without further decoration, Jem began to cross the room with great strides, with the three of them at his heels. Being close to the beds, Minato saw that not all the occupants were human. He was seeing skins of blue, violet, red and green; green hair as long and tangled as a web of seaweed that moved restlessly on a dirty pillow; claws that grabbed the wood of the frame of the bed while someone moaned. Someone else was laughing foolishly, desperately, with a sound more sad than crying; again he repeated a childhood rhyme again and again:

 _Orange and lemons_

 _The bells of St. Clement say_

 _When will you pay me?_

 _The bells ring at Old Bailey_

 _When will I be rich?_

 _They say the bells of Shoreditch..._

"Will," Jem whispered. He had paused by a cot halfway up the wall and seemed to soften on it, as if his legs were about to fail him.

On the cot was Will, half rolled up in a dark, worn blanket. They only wore pants and shirt; his gun belt was hanging from a hook inside the bunk. He had bare feet, heavy eyelids, and almost invisible eyes under the end of his dark lashes. His hair was drenched in sweat, close to his forehead; the cheeks, bright red and feverish. His chest rose and fell irregularly, as if it were difficult for him to breathe.

Minato put the back of his hand on his forehead. It was burning.

"Jem, we have to get him out of here," he observed his Persona from the Arcana of Death. "Ryoji, help me"

Ryoji nodded and helped Minato to stop him, while he was still singing.

The man on the adjoining bunk was still singing. Although he was not exactly a man. His body was short and twisted, and his bare feet ended in cloven hooves.

When it will be?

They say the bells of Stepney

I do not know,

Says Bow's great bell.

'He is lost' all the Person responded inside the mind of Minato. He noticed that Jem was still standing, not moving, still as a wax statue. Tessa told him to move, but he did not move to go to his parabatai. The shadowhunter's silver eyes were petrified; I did not leave the address where Will was.

Snorting with weariness, Minato gestured to Ryoji.

"Use Posumudi" he replied. Ryoji nodded and cast the spell, placing his right hand on Will's head, making his hand shine. Jem and Tessa watched in silence as Nyx's son cured Will of his toxic state. The woman in the red dress and the ifrits were also witnesses to that, and the fear they felt.

"What?" Will's voice returned to normal, and his blue eyes looked confused at the four of them. "What?!" He repeated again, surprised. "Guys, what are you doing here? How have you...?" He could not finish his sentence when he felt the bear arm of his parabatai.

"Silly," Jem said, relieved and happy that he was healthy. "You're a fool, Will Herondale, you had me worried"

"Jem..." Will spoke delicately as he felt his friend's embrace. It was not necessary to ask how they found it; just seeing Minato and Ryoji could understand that they were used to find him. He understood that he was worried about his absence and sought help from both of them. His blue eyes fell on Tessa's gray eyes: there was worry and anguish in them. "Guys..."

"Why, why did you come here?" replied Jem confused.

"I... I came here to look for the yin fen you needed, but..." His gaze focused on the warlock woman in the red dress, who was standing still like a statue, seized by the aura Ryoji emitted. "She has drugged me for not having money"

The woman hissed, but remained in place, along with the ifrits.

"It is no longer necessary to enter into another conflict, Will." Jem looked at the woman in the red dress. "I'll come back with the money," he said, turning his silver gaze to his friend. "Let's go, Cyril is waiting for us outside"

Will straightened his disheveled clothes and escorted them to the exit. While they were leaving, Minato heard the man's hoof voice, following them, thin and as high as the music of some wind instrument. A sharp giggle followed.

 _!Here comes a candle to illuminate the bed,_

 _And here comes an ax to cut your head!_

The four of them left the bar, impregnated by the oppressive stench of incense from the fairy drug bar, and then bathed in the dirty air of Whitechapel. Tessa almost fell down the dirty ladder, but it was Jem's hand that helped her stand. Cyril opened the door and the four entered the carriage. The servant started the horses and left the establishment.

* * *

In the corridor illuminated by the magic light, Minato and Ryoji silently watched in a corner as Jessamine dressed in boy clothes walked down the hall and looked both ways, as if she were scared and could recognize her. The girl disappeared for a moment from the corridor.

"So she pretended to be sick to dress up as a boy and sneak out at night," Minato said, looking at the address where Jessamine had disappeared.

"Yes, it is," Ryoji said. "She tried to hide it without anyone noticing it, but I noticed it in her eyes, it was not difficult to use my charm and some spells so she could not get any information from us"

Minato nodded.

"Well done"

"Besides," a humorous smile formed on his face. "It seems that the romantic situation between Tessa, Will and Jem is very intriguing, like in the television programs, do not you think?"

Minato moaned and shook his head at the comment.

* * *

 **I hope you liked the chapter of this fanfic, since it took me a long time to write it.**

 **As another mention of the Shin Megami Tensei saga, I put Nyarlathotep in the conversation of Ryoji and Minato, and also the Persona 1 and 2 characters.**

 **Another thing for you to understand about the world of Infernal Devices, is that warlocks are products between a demon and a human being; thus giving features of fauns and skins of different colors, in addition to being sterile. Which always point to Minato as a warlock because of his hair color.** **Since these are different from the Demi-fiend, while Tessa is a half blood between a demon and nephilim.**

 **I also put three new Persona for the plot: Circe of Fate Grand Order, while Diarmuid is of Majin Tensei 2 and Seiten Taisei is of Devil Children as the links that formed Minato.**

 **Another thing that seldom in Cassandra Clare's shadowhunter books is the little mention of God in the books, since shadowhunters revere one of their soldiers as a deity, which I had to put YHVH as an essential part of the plot and as a connection with the Amala Multiverse: I hope you can give your opinion about YHVH in the world of Infernal Devices.**

 **See you in the next chapter.**


	7. Codex of the world of Infernal Devices

**Well guys, here I bring you the Codex of Infernal Artificies to understand the plot of the trilogy of Cassandre Clare, along with the incorporation of the Amala Multiverse to history.**

 **I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

 **Shadowhunters:** The nephilim or better known as shadowhunters, are a group of humans with angel blood who live in secret in human society in the shadows, and whose main objective is to protect humanity from demons and other beings supernatural They have created their own culture over the years.

 **Raziel:** Raziel is an angel of YHVH who had been summoned by the templar Johnathan to rid a plague of demons, which allowed Raziel to grant him his blood in turning them into a new branch of humanity that would keep up with the threat of demons. The angel Raziel had handed Johnathan the Mortal Sword and the Mortal Cup; able to transform a normal human into a nephilim.

T **he Clave:** The Clave is the organization created by shadowhunters to organize meetings and discuss political issues with supernatural beings. It is conformed by the Council and guided by a Consul and an Inquisitor.

 **Runes:** The runes allow shadowhunters to gain supernatural strength and perform all functions in the hunt against demons. Runes have a time margin of a few seconds and desase on the skin. The runes are applied to nephilim children at the age of ten by a Silent Brother. There are several types of runes that allow the shadowhunter to have new abilities.

 **Demons:** The demons are dimensional beings that are jumping from world to world, while others are natives of their own kingdoms.

 **Downworlders:** The downworlders are the description of supernatural beings like werewolves, fairies, warlocks and vampires who live hidden in human society.

 **Warlocks:** The warlocks are the result of the fertilization of a demon with a human woman, allowing the newborn to obtain features of faun or have skin, hair and eyes of different colors. Also another characteristic of a warlock, is that they are born being infertile, because they mutant beings and get magic from their parents. Some warlocks are born without magic, which are called ifrits.

 **Automata:** They are mechanical beings based on supernatural magic; created by the warlock John Shade that would function as protectors of the downworlder against shadowhunters. After the death of the Shade couple, the automatons are used by the adoptive son of the marriage, Axel Mortmain, in his attempt to collect revenge.

 **Axel Mortmain:** He is a human who was raised and adopted by the Shade couple when he was a child. Their hatred for shadowhunters began when they entered the mansion of their adoptive parents and murdered them. With a longing for revenge, he rebuilt the automata of his adoptive father and improved them in each design.

 **Tessa Gray:** She is the great-granddaughter of the shadowhunter Aloysius Starkweather (who this and a group of shadowhunters entered the mansion and murdered the adoptive parents of Mortmain) and daughter of a Great Demon; that he was sent by Mortmain himself to impregnate his mother who was a nephilim without her noticing. She has nephilim blood and demon blood, which makes her the first being between the two enemy races.

 **Jem Carstairs:** He is a young shadow hunter who suffers from an addiction to a demonic drug called yin fen; originated by the revenge of a Great Demon by the death of its litter towards the parents of this one. He dug a hole in the ground and killed all members of the Shanghai Institute, including his parents, while the Great Demon Yanluo forced Jem to ingest the yin fen. Now he is a member of the Institute of London and helps to look for Mortmain. He is in love with Tessa.

 **Will Herondale:** It's a young man who had run away from his parents' house, after having made the mistake of opening a Pyxis box containing a demon locked in it and killing his eldest sister, victim of a venom. He had believed he had a curse, but it turned out he did not have it. He lives in the Institute in London and is parabatai of Jem Carstairs and helps find Mortmain. He is in love with Tessa.

 **World of shadowhunters:** It is a universe that inhabits the Amala Multiverse and is ruled by YHVH, who gave permission to one of his soldiers to create the second generation of nephilim to fight against the threat of demons of other dimensions and other supernatural beings.

 **Johnathan Shadowhunter** : It was a young templar who used the help of a warlock called Elphas to summon an angel to deal with the entrance of demons from other dimensions. The warlock summoned the angel Raziel, and the angel gave him his blood and other angelic instruments to end the demonic dimensional threat. Johanathan and his group became the second generation of nephilim.

* * *

 **This has been the Codex of the world of Infernal Devices so that they know the history. The next chapter will soon be ready.**

 **Greetings.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Well guys, we continue with this story that everyone liked, and I want to thank you for continuing and commenting on the chapters; thank you!**

 **Also, I want to give me your opinion on the introduction of the world of Infrenal Devices to the Amala Multiverse.**

 **The game Persona 3 belongs to the company Atlus and the trilogy of Infernal Devices is by Cassandra Clare.**

 **I hope you like it.**

* * *

"I suppose you all know that I went to an opium den last night," Will said at breakfast the next morning.

After Ryoji disappeared in a dark smoke in case he calls, Minato decided to meet in the dining room the rest of the shadowhunters to listen to Will about why he went to one of the marginal sectors of London. The day dawned gray and rainy, something very normal in Victorian London and sometimes in the modern world. Sophie came in and out of the kitchen carrying trays of food; Jessamine leaned on her hand, looking tired in her tea; Charlotte looked restless and upset, after spending the night in the library, and Will had his eyes turned sideways. Tessa was solemn because Jem was not there, something that Minato could have guessed must be sleeping in his room. Only Henry, who read the newspaper with one hand while poking his egg with the other, seemed to have energy.

The absence of Jem in the dining room aroused a curiosity in Minato when he observed Tessa's expression. When he and Ryoji were on the lookout for Jessamine's suspicion, Ryoji had commented on the sound of moans coming from Jem's room, which was very funny to him. Minato knew perfectly well that Will, Jem and Tessa had a problem of love between the three of them; putting Tessa at the center of the developed love triangle. Minato had already seen many times about relationships of love triangles in tv shows and old romances books. He had remained neutral in those things, but the situation with Mitsuru and Elizabeth were different.

He remained neutral to that kind of foreign matter that only the three young people of the Institute had and did not give importance. The only important thing was to stop Mortmain and prevent him from knowing the existence of the Multiverse of Amala; It was very dangerous that he could summon the Shadows and control them.

Charlotte looked up from her toast. Slowly, he folded the newspaper, laid it on the table, and lowered his reading glasses down his nose.

"No," he said. "The truth is that we were not aware of that aspect, undoubtedly glorious, of your recent activities"

"And that's where you've been all that time?" Jessamine asked without great interest, as she took a lump of sugar from the sugar bowl and bit it. "Are you already an irremediable addict? They say you only need one or two doses"

"It was not really an opium den," Tessa protested, before she realized she was saying it. "I mean... it seemed that they were more dedicated to the trade of magic powders and those things"

"Maybe it was not exactly an opium den," Will replied, "but it was still a den. he added, remarking the last thing with his finger in the air.

"Oh, well, it would not be one of those places that carry the ifrits" sighed the director. "The truth, Will..."

"Just one of those places," said Jem, who had just entered the breakfast room, as he sat next to Charlotte, as far as possible from Tessa, as she did not fail to notice with a strange tightness in her chest. And he did not look at her either. "On Whitechapel Street"

"I guess it was Ryoji who helped you, right?" Jessamine replied with a groan. Minato knew that she needed Ryoji by her side, as she did every day.

"Yes, he used one of his spells on me to locate Will," Jem explained. "His absence worried me more and more, I thought he had forgotten how he went back to the Institute"

"You worry too much," said Jessamine. "It's nonsense"

"You're right, I will not make that mistake again," Jem admitted, grabbing the bowl of rice, fish and egg. "It turned out that Will did not need my help at all"

Will looked at Jem thoughtfully.

"At least I woke up very healthy and energetic after being in a drunken state" he gestured to Minato. "Thanks to the Messiah"

"In fact," Jem commented, "it was Ryoji who used a spell to take you away from that state."

"More to thank him as our savior," Will said with a smile.

"Eggs," Henry said dreamily looking at his plate. "I love eggs, I could eat them all day"

Henry was about the same as Junpei; his comedic touch was similar.

"And was it really necessary to take Tessa with you to Whitechapel?" Charlotte asked Jem, as she took off her glasses and left them on the newspaper. His eyes looked at him reproachfully.

"Tessa is not porcelain," replied Jem. "Minato and Ryoji accompanied us when we left for Whitechapel, it's not going to break"

Minato could see that Tessa was trying not to blush with what happened the night before.

"You'd be surprised to know," Will interjected, "that I saw something very interesting in the opium den"

"Surely," replied Charlotte dryly.

"Was it an egg?" Henry asked.

"Downworlders" followed. "Most are lycanthropes"

"Werewolves do not have anything interesting" Jessamine looked annoyed. "We're focusing on finding Mortmain, Will, in case you've forgotten, not downworlders stunned by drugs"

"They were buying yin fen," Will informed. "A full"

Hearing that, Jem raised his head and looked Will in the eyes.

"They had already begun to change color," explained Will. "Some already had silver hair or eyes, even the skin was turning silvery"

"That's very unsettling," Charlotte said with a frown. "We should talk to Woosley Scott as soon as this Mortmain issue clears up, if he has a problem in his warlocks powder addiction pack, he'll want to know"

"Do not you think he should know?" Will ventured, as he leaned back in his chair. He seemed pleased that he had finally gotten a reaction to his news. "After all, it's your command"

"His pack is all the wolves of London," Jem said. "It is impossible that I can follow the steps of everything"

"I'm not sure you want to wait," Will added. "If you can locate Scott, I would talk to him as soon as possible"

Charlotte tilted her head to the side.

"And because?"

"Because," Will answered, "one of the ifrits asked one of the lycanthropes why they needed so much yin fen, and it seems to be a stimulant for werewolves. The answer was that the Magister was pleased that the drug had them working all night"

Charlotte's cup crashed into the saucer.

"Working on what?"

Will smirked, clearly satisfied with the impression he was causing.

"I have no idea, it was then that I lost consciousness, I was having a beautiful dream about a young woman who had lost most of her clothes..."

That made him remember Junpei more in his perverted and funny aspect.

"Possibly it is because the woman in the red dress has drugged you" Minato asked after being silent without saying anything.

Will laughed at that and rubbed the back of his neck, while Charlotte moaned with exhaustion and anguish.

"God, I hope that Scott is not involved with the Magister, First De Quincey, now the werewolves... all our allies, the Agreements..."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, Charlotte," Henry reassured her gently. "Scott does not look like those who would get involved with guys like Mortmain"

"Maybe you should be with me when I talk to him," Charlotte said. "On paper, you are the director of the Institute"

"Oh, no," Henry exclaimed with a face of horror. "Honey, you'll be perfectly without me, you're a genius in that kind of negotiations, and I'm not, and the invention I'm working on could blow all the mechanical army to pieces if I can tune the formation"

He smiled proudly at the whole table. Minato had seen Henry as the supernatural Tesla; since his specialty was the creation of artifacts that only he could do, he had also explained how his Evoker was made and what were the materials of its construction. After all, he was an inventor, but to tell him that in his world the technology was very little advanced, since only the Kirijo Group possessed it; an example would be the android Aigis, which decided not to count.

Charlotte looked at him for a long moment, then pushed her chair away from the table, got up, and left the room without saying anything else.

Will looked at Henry with narrowed eyes.

"You never touch your circuits, do you, Henry?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"Archimedes," Jem replied, knowing as always what Will wanted to say just by looking at it. "There was a mathematical diagram drawn in the sand when the romans attacked his city, he was so focused on what he was doing that he did not see a soldier approaching him from behind, his last words were 'do not touch my circuits'. then I was an old man "

"And probably never married," Will added, and smiling at Jem from the other side of the table.

This one did not respond to the smile. Without looking at Will, Minato or Tessa, without looking at anyone, he stood up and left the room behind Charlotte.

"Oh, wow," Jessamine lamented, "Is it one of those days when we all left in a rage?" He put his head on his arms and closed his eyes.

Henry looked at Minato, Will and Tessa in surprise.

"What happened? What have I done wrong?"

Tessa sighed.

"Nothing terrible, Henry, it's just... I think Charlotte wanted you to go with her"

"Then, why did not you say it?" Sadness had invaded his eyes. His joy at the eggs and his inventions, on the other hand, seemed to have disappeared.

The relationship between Henry and Charlotte was becoming increasingly tense: Henry was comical and childish, he was thinking about how to create new gadgets to benefit shadowhunters, and Charlotte was quite busy managing and tidying up the Institute, since if attitude It was from a mother tired of so much work. If not for the intervention of Minato and the invocation of Metatron, and the subsequent liberation of Ithuriel in Tessa's pendant, Charlotte would almost lose her leadership as director of the Institute and would pass Benedict Lightwood as the new director of the London Institute; something that did not happen, and all grace to the blue-haired Messiah.

"Because women never say what they think," Will answered. His gaze went to the kitchen, where Bridget was cleaning the remains of breakfast. His song floated in the lugubrious to the dining room:

 _!I'm afraid you're poisoned, my beautiful boy,_

 _I'm afraid you're poisoned, my consolation and joy!_

 _Oh, yes, they gave me poison, soon the bed do me,_

 _I have a pain in my heart, and I want to lie down._

For the Arcana of the Devil and Death, the song was very entertaining.

"I swear that woman has worked before as a death killer, selling tragic ballads for the Seven Dials," Will said. "And I wish he did not sing about poison right after we ate." He looked at Tessa out of the corner of his eye. "Should not you go put on your uniform? Today you do not have training with the Lightwood lunatics?"

"Yes, this morning, but I do not have to change my clothes, we're just going to practice with throwing knives," Tessa replied.

"Lucky you, I'm great at throwing knives." Will stood up and offered his arm. "Come on, Gideon and Gabriel will go crazy if I stay to watch the training, and besides, I wanted to see Scathach put them in their place with their legendary techniques that can only be heard in their ballads, is not it, Glas?"

Minato nodded as he rose from his seat.

* * *

He understood that Will was not wrong. His presence during the training session seemed to go crazy, at least, to Gabriel, although Gideon took the intrusion with the same impassiveness that seemed to take everything. Will sat on a low wooden bench next to a wall, and ate an apple, with his legs stretched out before him, occasionally tossing advice that the elder of the Lightwood did not pay attention to and Gabriel they felt like kicks in the chest.

"Does he have to be here?" Gabriel asked the two of them in a growl the second time he almost dropped the knife while he handed it to her. He put a hand on his shoulder, showing him where he has to aim at the target: a black circle drawn on the wall. "Can not you tell him to leave?"

Before Tessa could say anything to him, the sound of Minato's Evoker triggered, and Scathach's thin, voluminous figure manifested itself from the smoke. Will's eyes were opened like blinds and her mouth was half open.

"And why does Will Herondale have to leave, Gabriel?" demanded Scathach crossing her arms over her bust. "An explanation of that anger you have towards him?"

Gabriel swallowed nervously and said in a spiteful voice:

"It's something he had done when we were a child, lady Scathach"

"Seriously?" the Warrior Lady of the Shadow looked at Will. "Was there between you two, Will Herondale?"

Will grimaced and scratched his jaw.

"Well... if it happened in reality, but that was years..."

"Damned!" Gabriel growled with a murmur.

"Silence," Scathach demanded coldly from the minor of the Lightwood, and turned his steel gaze toward the older brother, who had stopped the maid's training by listening to the talk. "Gideon Lightwood, I want to know everything that happened when you and your brother were children, in this training room we came to practice and how to defend and fight, not to have grudges from the past in this room"

The two Lightwood brothers and Will nodded affirmatively; only Gabriel and Will were embarrassed and looked at the floor.

Gideon spoke:

"You are quite right, lady Scathach," he said with kindness and appreciation. "The reason why my brother and Will Herondale hate each other, is because everything had happened on a Christmas night, when we were twelve. In that celebration all the members of the Enclave attended the Institute, where I, Gabriel and my sister, Tatiana, attended the incident had happened when Will had picked up my sister's diary that had possibly fallen off when she walked through the room, in which case Will was placed near where Elise Penhallow He had just played the harpsichord and started reading his diary." He shrugged. "The rest is not necessary to tell"

"Your sister cried and Gabriel tried to fight Will, right?" replied Minato.

"Yes," said Gideon, nodding.

"And not only that!" murmured Gabriel. "That bastard broke my arm!"

"Oh, come on, Gabriel," Will told him as he stretched out his hands. "I know you tried to give me a good beating after what happened in the dance hall, but you turned out the opposite when I beat you"

"Bastard..." he grumbled angrily.

"Stop!" Scathach immediately ordered in an icy voice, causing Will and Gabriel to close their mouths. "Okay, that's another problem solved, but there's also another one that you two have not mentioned, right?"

Gabriel hesitated and Gideon nodded.

"It's true, lady Scathach" spoke Gabriel Lightwood with disgust and hesitation. "And the fact is that Charlotte's father had committed an act that only the Fairchilds always do when they are outside the Law"

"And what act did Charlotte's father, Gabriel?"

"My mother's brother, my uncle Silas, was one of Granville Fairchild's best friends. Then my uncle Silas violated the Law, something small, a minor infraction, and Fairchild discovered only thing that mattered was the Law, not friendship, not loyalty, it went straight to the Clave" his voice became resentful. "My uncle was killed by shame, and my mother died of grief"

Will had run out of words, while Tessa and Sophie were shocked by the terrible death of the mother and uncle of the Lightwood brothers.

Minato, being in his composure, asked:

"What was the infraction that led to your uncle's suicide?"

It was Gideon who decided to tell the facts:

"My uncle fell in love with his parabatai, it was not, as Gabriel said, a minor fraction, but very serious, romantic relationships between parabatai are forbidden, although even the best trained shadowhunter can fall prey to the feelings. I would have separated them, and that was what Silas could not stand, that's why he killed himself, my mother was consumed with rage and pain, I can not believe that her last wish was for us to snatch the Institute of Fairchild. and my father told me about what happened at Westminster Abbey, the plans changed"

"Did you want to take Charlotte Branwell out of the Institute?" Scathach said with a frown. Gabriel swallowed and turned his gaze, while Gideon nodded.

"Yes, but as I said, all that changed with the invocation of Cu Chulainn and Metatron, and I believe that children should not pay for the sins of their parents"

"Or the daughters," Will added.

Gideon looked at him and grinned at him. There was no displeasure in that smile; in fact, it was surprisingly the look of someone who understood Will and why he behaved as he did. Even this one seemed surprised.

"Very well." Scathach spoke with authority. "Since everything has been solved, I suggest that everyone return to their knife throwing practices, I will observe their throwing movements, which we did in the previous practice, I hope to see an excellent determination"

Teachers and students nodded to Dún Scáith's Warrior Lady and returned to their posts. Minato and Will watched in silence as the girls stretched their arms and threw the knives towards the center of the circle. The positions were firm, with arms outstretched and the eyes centered in the center; they grasped the tip of the blade firmly, and threw it; flying in circles in the air like a spinning wheel, to dig into some lines, but close.

On the wooden bench, Will told Minato some comments to ease the silence: he thanked him for looking at Whitechapel, the magical shield around the Ravenscare Manor, and also commented on Scathach's body and its fighting movements; Not to mention that he made a comment about Gideon being very gentle with Sophie.

After finishing the shadowhunter training, Tessa played the spell lessons with Circe and Titania. Tessa wanted to rest, but her instinct told her to stand firm and not complain, since her blood was also demon, and that made it a warlock. The first was the spell of creating a powerful magical barrier and throwing low level fireballs. For her, if it was hard work to learn to use the spells, but she stood firm and practiced without stopping.

* * *

After completing the warlock workouts, the four of them went to the living room where they could rest for a while. But when they entered, they noticed that Charlotte had company. He must have been in his mid-twenties, tall and thin until he was almost emaciated, with shoulder-length blond hair, dressed in a velvet jacket, knee-high hose and a long scarf with a cashmere print. A tinted monocle obscured a light green eye. It resembled the drawings of those who called themselves 'ascetics' I had seen in the satirical magazine Punch.

The young man was Woolsey Scott, leader of the werewolves of London and an old ally of the Clave. It was the first time that Minato had known a werewolf during his stay in supernatural Victorian London. He had presented himself very friendly, and also a great curiosity about Minato and Tessa; it was very rare for him to have two warlocks.

"Interesting" Scott finally sentenced. "Charlotte, it is very interesting that you had received two warlocks at the Institute, especially the young Arisato from Japan, his hair color matches that of his eyes, and his attitude is very reserved!"

"Thank you," Minato replied in a calm voice.

"And his voice is cold and neutral, perfect for a girl to be attracted to you! Not to mention that Will Herondale and miss Gray make a good couple together!"

"Thank you," said Tessa, with a voice that rose several octaves higher than normal. "Mr. Scott, that's very nice of you, but there's no such relationship between Will and I. I do not know what you've heard..."

"Nothing!" He said, and left care on an armchair and repositioned the long scarf. "Nothing at all, I assure you, although her blush contradicts her words, come on, let's all sit down, there's no need to be intimidated with me, Charlotte, call for tea.

Minato looked at the director, who shrugged as if to say nothing could be done. Minato sat down in his seat, as did Will and Tessa.

"And where is the young Carstairs?" Scott asked. "An adorable boy, with such an interesting coloring... And with so much talent for the violin... Of course I heard Gracin himself acting at the Paris Opera, and after that, well, everything sounds like coal dust scratching you the eardrums, a pity about his illness "

Charlotte, who had gone to the back of the room to call Bridget, came back, sat down, and smoothed her skirts.

"In a way, that's what I wanted to talk about with you..."

"Oh, no, no, no." Out of nowhere, Scott had taken out a ceramic box, which he waved in Charlotte's direction. "No serious discussion, please, until I've had tea and my cigar, an egyptian cigar?" He handed the box to Charlotte. "They are the best there is"

"No, thanks." The woman seemed a little horrified at the idea of smoking a cigar; no doubt it was hard to imagine, and Minato noticed that Will was laughing silently at Tessa's side. The leader of the lycanthropes shrugged and continued preparing his cigar. The ceramic box was a very ingenious artifact, with compartments for the cigars, tied with a silk ribbon, new and worn matches, and a place to throw the ash. They all watched the werewolf light his cigar with evident gusto, and the sweet scent of tobacco filled the room.

"Now," he said, "tell me how are you doing, Charlotte, my dear, and that absent-minded husband you have, still hanging around the crypt inventing things that explode?"

"Sometimes," Will interjected. "They're even supposed to blow up"

There was a tinkle and Bridget appeared with the tea tray, which saved Charlotte from having to answer. The maid put the tea things on a small table between the chairs, looking uneasily on either side.

"I'm sorry, miss. Branwell, I thought there would only be two for tea..."

"It's okay, Bridget," Charlotte said, in a tone that strongly signaled her retirement. "I'll call you if we need something else"

The girl bowed and retreated, taking a curious, disguised look at Woosley Scott. He did not notice her. He had already poured milk into his cup and was looking at his hostess with a slight reproach.

"Oh, Charlotte"

She looked at her perplexed.

"Yes?"

"The tweezers... the sugar tongs" Scott said sadly, in a voice that seemed to comment on the tragic death of someone he knew. "They are silver"

"Oh!" Charlotte looked startled. Minato knew that werewolves had a weakness for silver objects; an example would be the silver bullets that monster fighters use in the series, games or movies of their world. "So sorry..."

"Nothing happens," he sighed. "Luckily, I carry mine." From another pocket of her velvet jacket, which was fastened over a silken waistcoat stamped with water lilies that had nothing to envy Henry's, she pulled out a silk coffin; He unrolled it and revealed gold tongs and a teaspoon of tea. He put them on the table, removed the lid of the teapot and seemed pleased.

"Ceylon powder tea, I suppose, have you ever had tea in Marrakech, soaked it with sugar or honey..."

"Gunpowder?" Tessa asked confused by the content of the tea, and Minato also wanted to know. "There's no gunpowder in the tea, right?"

Scott laughed and put the lid back on the teapot. She leaned back in the seat while Charlotte, her lips pressed together, was pouring tea.

"How lovely!" exclaimed Scott. "No, they call it that because the tea leaves are rolled into volitas that resemble those of gunpowder"

"Mr. Scott," Charlotte insisted, "we really need to talk about the situation."

"Yes, yes, I read your letter." He sighed. "Politics of downwolders... So boring... I guess you will not let me tell you that Alma-Tadema has painted me a portrait... I'm dressed as a roman soldier..."

The mention of a roman soldier made Ceasar laugh in Minato's mind.

"Will," Charlotte interrupted firmly. "Maybe you should tell Mr. Scott what you saw in Whiechapel last night"

He dutifully did what he asked, which surprised Tessa somewhat, but Minato was not surprised; he refrained from making sarcastic remarks. Scott watched him over the edge of the tea cup during the story. His eyes were green so light it looked yellow.

"I'm so sorry, boy," said the werewolf when Will finished talking. "I do not see why this requires an urgent meeting, we all know of the existence of those ifrits dens, and I can not be watching every member of my pack permanently, if some of them decide to let themselves be carried away by vice..." He came closer to him. "Do you know that your eyes are almost the exact tone of the petals of the thoughts? Not quite blue, not quite violet, like the young Arisato, Extraordinary"

Will opened his extraordinary eyes wide and grinned.

"I think it's been the mention of the Magister that has worried Charlotte"

"Ah" Scott turned his gaze on her. "You're worried because I could betray you like De Quincey did, be allied with the Magister... we better call him by his name, okay?: Mortmain, and letting my wolves do their bidding"

"I had thought," the woman explained, hesitating "that maybe the downworlders felt betrayed by the Institute after what happened with De Quincey, his death..."

"Well, the Children of the Night and the Children of the Moon have never..."

"De Quincey had a werewolf killed," said Tessa suddenly; her memories mingled with Camille's, and with the memory of a pair of yellow-green eyes like Scott's. "For his... relationship... with Camille Belcourt"

Woolsey Scott cast a long, curious look at the Changeling. Minato understood that that look was something solemn; as if it were someone close or familiar, and it was.

"That" he replied "was my brother, my older brother, he was the leader of the pack before me, you know, and I inherited the post, usually he must be killed to become the head of the pack. It was done by voting, and the task of avenging my brother on behalf of the pack fell on me, only now, you see..." He made a gesture with his elegant hand. "You have taken care of De Quincey, you have no idea how grateful I am." He tilted his head to the side. "Did he die well?"

"He died screaming" replied Charlotte, and her abruptness reminded Mitsuru.

"How nice to hear that." The lycanthrope put down his cup. "And that's why they've won my favor, I'll tell them what I know, which is not much. Mortmain came to see me at first, he wanted me to join him at the Pandemonium Club, I refused, because De Quincey had already joined and I would not form a club he was in. Mortmain let me know that there would be a place for me if he changed his mind... "

"I suppose he told you about his plan to destroy shadowhunters, right?" interrupted Will.

"Yes, that's right, how did you know?" said curious Scott.

"Mortmain has a grudge against us," Charlotte explained. "The shadowhunters killed their parents years ago, they were warlocks, dedicated to the study of black magic"

"Not as much bitterness as a fixed idea" replied the werewolf. "An obsession, he would like to see them erased from the face of the Earth, although he seems to settle for starting in England and then going outside. A type of crazy patient and methodical. Of the worst class." He leaned back in the chair and sighed. "I received news about a group of young wolves that do not belong to any herd, that have been doing some kind of hidden work for which they have paid very well, that they have been showing their money among the herds and creating animosity about the drug"

"Use the drug as a means to make them work," Minato explained. "But it will also kill them in the process of addiction or fatigue"

The lycanthrope looked Will in the eyes.

"This yin fen, this silver dust, is what your friend Carstairs is addicted to, he is alive"

"Jem survives because he is a shadowhunter, and because he consumes as little drug as possible, as little as possible, and even then, in the end, he will kill him." Will's voice was terribly expressionless. "As if I would not take it either"

"Good, good," Scott said cheerfully. "In this case, I hope that the purchases made by the Magister do not cause shortages"

Minato noticed that Will went pale. It was evident that this idea had not occurred to him. The loss of the drug would mean the death of his parabatai, and that would affect him a lot. Will walked to the door and slammed it shut. I thought about using Posumudi in case there was no more yin fen.

Charlotte frowned.

"God, go to Whitechapel again," he lamented. Was it necessary, Woosley? I think you just terrified the poor guy, and surely for nothing"

"There's nothing wrong with being a bit cautious," the latter replied. "I thought my brother would live forever, until De Quincey killed him"

"De Quincey and the Magister were the same: ruthless," said the woman. "If you could help us"

"The whole situation is definitely the most horrible," Scott observed. "Unfortunately, the werewolves that are part of my package are not my responsibility"

"If your eyes were wide open, mr. Scott, any information about where you are working and what you are doing would be of great value. The Clave will be grateful "

"Oh, the Clave" repeated the werewolf as if he were dead of boredom. "Very well, and now, young Arisato, let's talk about you"

Minato looked at him curiously.

"Oh, come on, do not be shy, I'd! Like to tell you about your experience at the London Institute and how you ended up helping Charlotte!"

Minato looked at Charlotte with a raised eyebrow; she smiled shyly and overturned the teapot "accidentally", splashing hot water. Scott jumped with a shout and pushed the scarf away from the danger.

The woman stood up instantly, apologizing.

"Woosley, honey," she said, putting his hand on his arm, "you have helped me a lot, let me accompany you to the door, there is an old keris that the Bombay Institute has sent us, what I have been waiting for, to show you..."

Minato watched Charlotte carry the werewolf to the door.

Tessa snorted.

"A very charming guest, do not you think, Minato?"

He nodded.

* * *

Minato was sitting across from Igor and Margaret in the Velvet Room. On the desk, the Tarot cards were stacked in order.

"Your procedure in the world of the nephilim is improving, Minato," Igor answered hoarsely, gestured to the cards. "Young Will Herondale still feels distressed about young Carstairs's life in getting the supplies he needs to survive, while miss Gray continues to strive to be helpful, the training of your two Persona has helped her to lift that spirit, which strengthened your bond and strength "

"But problems are just around the corner," said Elizabeth. "At this very moment you will be in front of a problem that had just happened, something that you and Ryoji know"

"Jessamine," Minato replied.

"Exactly, Minato," Igor replied, forming his usual spooky smile at their corners. "You and Ryoji have been very cautious with miss Lovelace during your stay at the nephilim Institute, you were very cautious about it, now you have to face your first challenge"

Minato nodded.

"Good luck, Minato." Igor said goodbye, while Elizabeth gave him a wink.

* * *

Minato had woken up when he heard that the door to his room was ringing. He got up from the bed and walked to the door. When he opened the door, it turned out that it was Sophie. She wore the maid's dark uniform, but her cap was half-sided and the dark curls fell down her back. She was very pale, and there was a blood stain on the collar of her dress; She seemed horrified and almost sick.

"Sophie, are you okay?" Minato replied to the maid.

The maid looked around, fearful.

"Can I come in?"

Minato nodded and gestured for it to happen. He locked the door and motioned for her to sit on the edge of the bed. The maid wrung her hands in her lap.

"Sophie, what happened?"

"It's miss Jessamine"

He already knew what she was going to be.

"Something happened?" He commented in a calm and taciturn voice.

"It's... it's fair to say that I've seen her..." She broke off with great regret. "He's been going out at night"

He and Ryoji knew when they saw him disappear a few nights ago.

"I assumed, continue"

Sophie seemed relieved. She did not like Jessamine, Minato knew it well, but she was an educated maid, and an educated maid did not give away her lover.

"Yes," he replied firmly. "I've noticed for days, sometimes the bed is intact, there's mud on the carpets in the morning when it was not the night before, I would have told miss Branwell, but she already has such a horrible amount of things. I have not seen myself with courage"

"So you came looking for me, right?"

"Yes, it was because of this." Sophie reached into her uniform pocket and pulled a cream-colored card between her fingers. "Tonight I found this card, in the pocket of your new velvet card, you know, the one with a strip of raw color"

Minato took it slowly, and turned it around. It was an invitation to a dance.

July 20, 1878

Mr. BENEDICT LIGHTWOOD

Pay your respects to

Miss JESSAMINE LOVELACE

and asks for the pleasure of your company

in the masked ball that will take place on

Tuesday, July 27 _RSVP_.

The invitation followed with the details of the address and the start time of the dance. The most surprising thing is that it was the father of the Lightwood brothers who sent the letter to Jessamine, but the content said the opposite: it was a love date with the initials "N.G", which was well known by name. Initials when I was at the meeting of the Council of shadowhunters at Westminster Abbey.

"Nathaniel Gray, Tessa's brother"

Sophie inhaled deeply.

"I was afraid of that, but I thought it could not be, not after what I did"

Minato nodded.

"Where is Jessamine, Sophie?"

The maid began to wring her hands quickly.

"Is that... that's the question..."

Minato cocked his head to the side, confused.

"She... she found me with the card in his hand, young lady, I tried to hide it, but I've already seen it. She had such a menacing look when he came to take it, that I could not have helped, I've had training with young Gideon, lord Mahakala and lady Scathach have come to my mind and... well..."

"You hit her, right?" Minato answered and she nodded.

"I hit her in the head with a mirror," she replied, bewildered. "One of those with a silver frame, so it was quite heavy, it has collapsed like a stone, so... I have tied it to the bed and I have come to look for you"

"I see," Minato commented, nodding to the maid's reported information. "We'll have to tell you..."

"Not mrs. Branwell," the girl moaned. "You will fire me..."

"She is not going to fire you for knocking out Jessamine, you defended her voluntarily, we have the letter as evidence..."

"But...!" she insisted scared, but Minato reassured her.

"Everything will be fine, do not worry, we're going to find Will and Tessa about the situation, and then we'll think about something about the dance."

"I'm worried if mrs. Branwell found out what I did," the maid moaned in anguish.

"She will not"

Minato unlocked the door knob and the two of them went out into the dark corridor.

* * *

When Minato showed them the contents of the letter, Will and Tessa were surprised when they read it, and they also went to see Jessamine unconscious in her room.

"This... can not be possible" said Tessa without words.

"Sophie has done this?" Will answered with wide eyes. They were at the foot of Jessamine's bed. It lay on top, the chest rose and fell slowly like the famous Sleeping Beauty of Madame du Barry's wax. His hair was spread out on the pillow and a large bleeding wound on his forehead. She was tied to the bed by both wrists. "Our Sophie?"

Tessa looked at her, who was sitting in a chair by the door. He lowered his head and looked at his hands. I avoided having eye contact with Tessa or Will.

"Yes, she did it," Minato replied.

"I think I could fall in love with you, Sophie," he released. "Maybe we'll talk about marriage"

The girl moaned.

"Stop now," Tessa hissed. "I think you're scaring the poor girl more than she already is"

"And what are you going to be afraid of? Jessamine?" It seems that Sophie has already won this little skirmish with ease. "It was hard for Will to suppress an evil smile." Sophie, dear, you have nothing to worry about, I wanted to hit Jessamine on the head many times.

"I was afraid that Charlotte would fire her" said Minato with a bored look.

"By hitting Jessamine?" Will became more serious. "Glas, if that invitation is what it seems, and Jessamine was going to meet secretly with Tessa's brother, he may have betrayed us all, not to mention what Benedict Lightwood is doing, organizing parties of which none of We do not know anything about it. "The parties Nate is invited to? What Sophie has done is heroic, Charlotte will thank you."

Hearing that, the maid raised her head.

"You really believe it?"

"I know," Will replied. For a moment, he and Sophie looked at each other. The maid looked away first, but if Minato was not mistaken, for the first time there was no contempt in his eyes when he looked at him.

Will pulled the wake from his belt. He sat on the bed next to Jessamine and gently brushed her hair back. Minato looked at him curiously.

He put the stele on the unconscious girl's neck and then drew two runes.

"An iratze," he explained. "That is to say, a healing rune and a rune of dreams now, this will keep her in peace until at least tomorrow. Your skill with the hand mirror is admirable, Sophie, but your knots can improve"

The woman mumbled something low in response. The parenthesis in his dislike for Will seemed to close.

"The question is what to do now," he said.

"I'm thinking Charlotte should find out," Minato told him.

"No," he replied firmly. "You can not do it"

Minato looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"There are two reasons," replied the shadowhunter. "First, I would be obliged to explain it to the Clave, and if Benedict Lightwood is the host of that dance, I can imagine that some of his followers will be there, but maybe they are not all, if you contact the Clave, maybe they can let you know beforehand. Someone's coming to see what's really going on. Second, the dance has started an hour ago, we do not know when Nate will come looking for Jessamine, and if he does not see her, he may be gone, we do not have time to waste or waste, and waking up Charlotte to explain all that we would do just that"

"So, Jem?" Tessa asked him.

Something went through Will's eyes.

"No, not tonight, Jem is not quite right, but he will say yes, after last night I must leave him out of all this."

Tessa looked at him sternly.

"What do you propose that we do?"

"Go to the party of incognitos," Minato replied to both.

"Just what I was going to say," Will answered with a smile forming at their corner. He turned his gaze to Tessa. "Miss Gray, would you do me the honor of attending a dance with me?"

"Do you remember the last party we went to?" Tessa asked him.

He kept smiling. He had that intense look that he had when he was making a plan.

"You plan to use your Changed power to Jessamine, right?"

"Yes" she replied with a sigh. "I'll transform into Jessamine and go instead." It's the plan I'm thinking. "He turned to Sophie. "Do you know what Nate's hall is, a white Jessamine dress?"

The maid nodded.

"Brush it and prepare it for use," Tessa said. "You'll also have to comb my hair, Sophie, have you calmed down enough?"

"Yes, miss." He got up, went to the closet and opened it. Will was still looking at Tessa; her smile it got wider.

She lowered her voice.

"Do you think Mortmain could be there?"

The smile disappeared from Will's face.

"Yes it is there, do not approach it"

"But there is also the possibility that he is not there," suggested Mianto.

"If Mortmain is yes or no at the dance, I'm ready to confront him," said Tessa firmly.

Will frowned. Minato observed Tessa's determination through his gray eyes; A spark of audacity was growing in her, a product of the training she had received from Circe and Titania. It also reminded him of Fuuka, whose worried resemblance was just like hers.

"Your power is awesome, Tessa, but you're not in a position to capture a powerful adult magician like Mortmain, you'll leave that to me," Will said.

"She's right," said Minato, drawing the attention of the three. "She has been trained in the arts of spells by Titania and Circe"

Will looked at him surprised.

"You said Circe, the Sorceress Goddess of the greek mithology?"

The blue-haired teenager nodded.

"He's right, Will," said Tessa. "She and Titania have trained me in the arts of sorcery to control my warlock powers, after all, I'm carrying demon blood, right?"

"And one more danger so that Mortmain can catch you," the Welsh nephilim replied.

"But I can get out of there intact, and it's a costume ball, and you need masks so you do not recognize them, including your hair, Minato."

"I will use a spell so that they do not recognize me and a mask"

Will smiled mischievously.

"And I will wear my mask from the last Christmas party that had the theme of the Carnival of Venice, tell it, Sophie."

This one, who was busy with what looked like a mixture of cobwebs and moonbeams on the brush tray, sighed.

"It's true, Miss. And you let him take care of him from Mortmain, hey, hey, it's too dangerous, and they'll be out there in Chiswick!"

Will looked at Tessa triumphantly.

"If even Sophie agrees with me, you can not say no"

"If I can," she replied stubbornly, "I've been trained by a greek goddess and a fairy queen, Nate is all mine and I'll talk to him like Jessamine."

"For the note, it does not give me any sensation," Will said as he stood up, "except that he can quote Tennyson's minor poetry, Sophie, how long will it take to fix Tessa?"

"Half an hour," the maid replied, without looking up from her dress.

"Then, Tessa, meet me in the yard with us in half an hour," he said. "I'll wake up Cyril and prepare to faint with my finery"

Minato moaned.

"Something happens?" Will replied.

"Yes" he answered. "It seems that Alice wants to go to the dance"

"Alice?" said Tessa confused.

* * *

The night was cold, and Minato and Tessa passed through the doors of the Institute and stayed at the top of the outer steps.

The carriage was there, at the foot of the stairs, and Will waited in front. He looked up as the doors of the Institute closed behind them. Minato observed that Tessa and Will looked at each other. He knew what he was seeing; I had seen it when Tessa used the Changed. It was Jessamine down to the smallest detail, dressed in a delicate ivory silk dress. She had a generous neckline, showing a good part of her chest, with a silk ribbon around her neck to emphasize her form. The sleeves were short, and left the arms at the mercy of the night air. Even if the neckline had not been so low, Tessa would have felt naked without her mechanical angel, but she could not take it; No doubt Nate will notice him. The skirt, with a tail in cascade, was hollowed back from a thin waist and with a bow; Her hair was pulled back high, with a strip of pearls held in place with hairpins of pearls. And he wore a gold domino mask that highlighted Jessamine's blond hair to perfection.

While Minato was wearing a formal dress, which consisted of a dark elegant suit buttoned over a dark blue shirt and a dark tie and black pants, His hairstyle was identical to that of Ryoji, and his long bangs made it sideways. He had an indigo blue half-face mask in his hand; a reminder to the Shadows that he had fought in the Tartarus in his beginnings as a member of SEES. He was wearing the Evoker at his waist; ready to summon his Death Arcana Person.

Will was dressed in a black and white business suit. These colors, simple and contrasted, made the angular perfection of his features. His black hair fell over a black mask half face that highlighted the blue of his eyes. Minato observed that Tessa had looked away from Will in a second and looked elsewhere.

"Ah!" It was all Will said as she descended the steps and closed her shawl. Minato observed that Tessa was trying to hide her blush from seeing Will dressed smartly and when he took her hand. "Now I see why your brother quoted that deplorable poetry, you're supposed to be Maud, are not you, pink queen of the pink girls' garden?"

"You know?" Tessa said while he helped her get into the carriage, "I do not like that poem either"

He came up behind her and Minato last, as he closed the door.

"Jessamine loves it"

The vehicle began to rattle on the paving stones, and it crossed the doors of the fence. Minato saw that Tessa was nervous about the break they had made.

"I'm not Jessamine"

She looked. There was something in his eyes, a kind of mocking admiration; Minato wondered if it was simply admiration for Jessamine's appearance.

"No," he admitted. "No, even being the perfect portrait of Jessamine, some time I see Tessa mode, as if scratching a layer of paint, I could see my Tessa underneath"

"I'm not your Tessa either"

Minato moaned mentally. He did not lend them the argument between them and observed the nocturnal landscape; He needed to bring his headphones.

"By the way, your hair has a slight kinship with Ryoji, is not it, Minato?" Tessa replied, trying to change the subject.

He watched her and nodded.

"Silent as a statue, huh?" Will smiled. "And it's true what Tessa says: you look like the color of hair to him"

"It's very difficult to explain," he answered bluntly.

"More mystery without explanation?" Will put his hands behind his head. "Oh come on, if you barely gave us a piece of information on the train to Yorkshire"

He shook his head.

"But that would not explain how your friends can invoke beings drawn from ancient legends," said Tessa.

"Maybe they did it by accepting a kind of agreement," Will said.

"Covenant?" Tessa replied confused.

"A covenant is made when a human swears an oath to a demon, whether it is for riches or glory." The devil accepts the words, but offers something in return to do ask for memories or half of the soul for their taste, but the The case of your friends summoning mythological beings through a shot in the hundred is something completely that I can not understand, maybe they had to resort the help of another being to stop that threat that you call Shadows, right? "

Minato shook his head.

"No, it was not like that"

Will grimaced.

"If that's not the case, then why does Ryoji have the same characteristics as yours? Did they make a deal?"

"Yes," Minato said in his usual voice. "I defeated him and he surrendered, allowing me to join my psyche"

Tessa and Will looked at him surprised.

"That must have been exhausting, the fight, of course," Will replied.

Minato nodded.

"That means that the human form we saw is an avatar of Thanatos, right?"

Another nod.

"Just as you could summon Titania and Circe: a fairy queen and a greek goddess, not counting Ryoji as the avatar of Thanatos" replied Tessa.

Will whistled.

"You have some tricks up your sleeve, you summoned Cu Chulainn, Mahakala, Scathach, Thanatos, and then you summoned the goddess Circe and Titania, yes, you're very interesting"

"And also," commented Tessa. "It was Titania herself who bewitched Will's house, and explained that Will never had a curse, when we were in Ravenscare Manor"

Will sighed.

"Yes, it was" he replied with melancholy.

"And you did not tell them anything about that!" Answered Tessa angrily.

The nephilian welsh looked at her with an air of guilt.

"I know you have every right to be angry, and I understand." It was a fault I had saved when I was nine years old when I accidentally opened the container where the devil was kept. I had another option to run away from home and leave my family behind"

"And that's why you behaved so cruelly to me on the balcony." Tessa's voice was calm.

Will swallowed and nodded.

"I did it because I did not want the people around me to die because of my curse, I tried to do this with others so they would not die, and yes, what I told you on the balcony was something I did so you would not have to read the Lightwood's sister newspaper to win the hatred of others and keep them away"

"I guess he had love poems in his diary, right?" Minato entered the conversation.

He will laugh.

"Of course." She had fallen without realizing it, and when I picked her up from the floor, I noticed that she was full of poems about me: the color of my eyes, the wedding we would celebrate, had written "Tatiana Herondale" everywhere"

"It sounds so cute," commented Tessa.

"I had been in the living room, but I went back to the dance floor with the diary, as Gideon said: I stood next to Elise Penhallow and started reading the newspaper, you know what happened next"

"Gabriel tried to hit you, but you broke your hand in the street and he hates you for that"

"Yes, it was" he shrugged.

"Sophie told me she's married now," she said. "Tatiana, had just returned from traveling across the continent with her husband"

"I'm sure she's as boring and stupid as she was then." Will sounded like he was about to fall asleep. He closed the curtain, and they went dark. Minato heard her breathing, felt it in front of him. He understood why Will had to be so rebellious and impertinent with others: he had a curse when he was a child and had to have rebellious behavior so that no one was hurt by his curse, but when it was discovered that he never existed, he decided to do everything necessary to restore your relationship with others; especially Tessa, since it was his love interest, but he was always closer to Jem than to Will, and Minato knew that Jem was also in love with Tessa; resulting in a telenovela love triangle.

"Will," said Tessa again.

"The lady has another question, I notice it in her tone, will you ever stop asking questions, Tessa?"

"Not until I have all the answers I want," she replied. "Will, if sorcerers are created from the union between a demon and a human, then why was I born being half demon and half shadowhunter?"

"That's what I asked when Ithuriel revealed enough information about your origins, Tessa, it was something I had never heard in my life"

"But in the Codex he said that most sorcerers are the result of a... rape," insisted Tessa, breaking her voice into the ugly word, "or of demons who take the form of the beloved and cheat in seduction. Like me, Jem told me that the blood of a shadow hunter is dominant. The Codex explains that the children of shadowhunters and lycanthropes or fairies are always shadowhunters, and I am a hybrid between the hunter of shadows and the devil, how can that be possible?"

"Usually, the child dies." Will pulled the curtain. "The child is born dead, it's always like that, but you're a very special and strange case, which was a big surprise when we learned what you are at the Council meeting in Westminster Abbey. When Ithuriel mentioned that your mother was a nephilim when it was a baby, it was stolen by Mortmain's assistants and replaced by a human, it made me think of the runes we carry "

"And what's important?" Minato asked curiously.

"For us, shadowhunters, it is important to receive our first runes when we turn ten years old, as we obtain incredible strength and advanced sharpness. Tessa's mother was a shadowhunter, which did not carry a rune nor a ritual has been done against the demonic influence, allowing a demon of Eidolon to impregnate your mother and give birth to you, that confirms my theory"

"But... even so, being a hybrid between the two species, is it possible that I am sterile?" Tessa replied gulping nervously.

"The blood of a shadowhunter is dominant, Tessa, you may not be"

Before Tessa could ask another question, the wheels stopped with a jolt. They had arrived.

* * *

Cyril had stopped the carriage before the gates of the property, under the shade of an oak loaded with leaves. The Lightwood cottage, just outside of London, was huge, Palladian-style, with tall pillars and multiple staircases. The brightness of the moon gave a pearly tone to the whole, as in the interior of an oyster. The stone of the house seemed to glow silver, while the fence surrounding the property had the tone of black oil. None of the lights in the house seemed to be on; the place was dark as the mouth of a wolf and silent as a grave. The wide grounds that surrounded it everywhere and down the edge of a meander of the River Thames were likewise dark and deserted.

While the four were getting out of the carriage, Minato heard Lucifer in his mind that the environment was demonic, and it was.

"Did you smell it?" Will responded to Minato, who nodded. A frown formed at the corners of the shadow hunter. "Demonic magic, its stench is in the air"

Tessa grimaced, Minato knew that she could not smell the scent in the air; there was only the smell of wet leaves and dirt.

Seizing the opportunity, Minato pulled out his Evoker and triggered the trigger. From the smoke had formed the figure of a twelve-year-old girl with long blond hair and pale skin like a ghost; She was wearing a blue dress with a white ribbon around her waist, long white stockings with black sneakers and blood-colored eyes. For Tessa, she had a kinship with Lewis Caroll's Alice.

The girl observed the place and made a face.

"It smells like a demon," she said with a childish grunt. "I hope the party is lovely"

"It will be, Alice," Minato replied.

A terrifying smile formed at the corners of the girl.

"Thanks, Minato!"

"Minato," Will said in a bewildered tone. "Is she the Alice you were talking about?"

The girl bowed in her dress.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Will Herondale the Shadowhunter, and Tessa Gray, the Hybrid, my name is Alice, and yes, I was the one who asked Minato to let me go to the dance... After all, uncle Nebiros and uncle Belial gave me permission to leave "

Will swallowed at the mention of two Greater Demons and Hellish Princes.

"Sa-Said Nebiros and Belial" the shadowhunter's voice was stuttering and surprise. "The two Infernal Princes are your uncles?"

"I've done it, they're the ones who take care of me when I died, and that's why I call them uncles" Alice said with her smile formed at their corners.

"That means... what are you a ghost?" Tessa replied, trying to calm down.

"Something like that" the girl shrugged.

"But you have a kinship with the protagonist of Lewis Caroll's book"

The girl's smile was becoming more diabolical and more terrifying.

"Believe me, Tessa, I had already died there" she looked forward. "Come on, the party awaits us"

The girl walked giving a small baby bounce to the fence. Will and Tessa watched Minato bewildered; He shrugged and went after her, followed by the other two. There was a bell there, and Alice rang it. The girl looked at Will.

"You better hide, because someone is coming to find us"

Will nodded; He turned and ran out into the darkness, losing himself in sight.

"He asked me if he will die for me" said the girl, with her macabre smile at their corners.

"Alice" caught Minato's attention.

"Oh, come on!" Alice made a childish tantrum. "He would do anything to save his damsel in distress, including dying in the attempt" the girl looked at Tessa and let out a humorous laugh.

Minato moaned and shook his head.

The gate had opened, and a hooded person came out to meet them. The first thing Menta thought was that he would be a Silent Brother, but their habit was the color of the parchment, and the person the three of them had in front wore a tunic the color of black smoke. The hood hid his face completely. Without speaking, Tessa extended the invitation.

The hand that took it was gloved. For a moment, the face hid the invitation. The hooded individual looked at Minato and Alice, and said in a grainy, harsh, cutting voice.

"You are not on the list"

Alice decided to respond to the hooded one without detours.

"My uncles gave me permission to go to the party that the nephilim Benedict Lightwood has made" he gestured towards Minato. "He is my companion, after all, my uncles are Infernal Princes"

With the final mention at the end of the two regents of Hell, the hooded man nodded fearfully and motioned the guests to follow him. Tessa watched in amazement as the hooded man was afraid of the words, including that his caretakers are two powerful demons. When she looked at Minato surprised, he shrugged, and continued to walk behind his guide.

He led them to the side of the house, down a narrow garden path. The gardens covered an extensive plot of land around the building, which looked silvery green in the moonlight. There was a circular pond, with a white marble bench to the side, and low hedges, carefully cut out to demarcate clean paths. The one Minato went through ended in a tall, narrow entrance in the side of the house. A strange symbol was carved on the door. It seemed to move and change when Minato looked at him. It was very hypnotic. The hooded man opened the door and gestured for them to pass.

Minato and the two girls entered the house, and the door slammed shut behind her. He noticed that Tessa turned just as she closed and could glimpse for a moment the face under the hood. Minato thought he saw something very like a group of red eyes in the center of a dark oval, like those of a spider. He could see that Tessa felt distressed when the hooded man closed the door behind them. The three of them were in the dark.

Before Alice could form a sphere of light in her hand, light around her was made. They were at the foot of a long narrow staircase. Some torches burned with a greenish flame, which surely was not magical light, hung on the walls.

There was a door on top. This one had another symbol painted on it. It was a double snake biting. The simbol of ouroboros, whose representative reptile appeared to him in his mind.

Minato was not a fan of the holidays, let alone the school dances in his world. He had never learned to dance during his time when he was a child or he did not have dance lessons. But being in the Victorian era, he was able to make a mental image of the elegant dances that appeared on television programs or by images in textbooks: women wore velvet blouses of different colors and jewels that enhanced elegance , while men wore different types of gauze shirts and a neat hairstyle; that's how dances were at the time he is now. But there was no big ballroom in sight.

When the door closed behind him, Minato did not see any servants rushing to meet them. Instead, noise, music and light covered them like a wave. They stayed at the entrance of a room so huge that it was hard to believe that it occupied the house of the Lightwood. A large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling; only after looking at it for a few seconds did Minato realize that it was spider-like, with eight "legs" hanging, each with a set of huge candles. The walls, what I could see of them, were a very dark blue, and along the side overlooking the river there were large windows, some open for the breeze to enter, because the room, despite the cold outside, was oppressive of heat. More of these, there were curved stone balconies, from which the city could be seen. The walls were covered in large part by large bright fabrics, forming loops and spirals that hung above the windows and moved in the faint breeze. The cloth had all kinds of drawings, woven in red; the same bright and changing patterns.

The room was full of people. Well, not exactly people. Most of them seemed quite human. They saw the pale dead faces of the vampires, and a few ifrits of violet and red tones, all dressed to the last. Most of the attendees, but not all wore masks: elaborate gadgets in black and gold; the pointed mask of Doctor Plague with small glasses; red masks of demons with horns included. However, some had their faces exposed, including a group of women with dull hair, lavender, green and violet-no dyes-and they wore it loose, like the nymphs in the paintings. His clothes were also scandalously vaporous. It was evident that they wore no corset under the wide dresses of velvet, tulle and satin.

In Minato's mind, he could hear his archangels say a few insults that it was blasphemy to foul a heavenly residence, while his demons and gods did not agree with them.

Going in and out among the human guests, there were beings of all shapes and sizes. There was an individual, too tall and thin to be a man, with a top hat and a tailcoat, next to a young woman with a green cloak and hair that shone like a penny and copper. Creatures that looked like big dogs moved among the guests, their yellow eyes very alert. They had rows of spikes on their backs, like fantasy creatures in video games in the world of Minato. Several goblins shrieked among themselves in incomprehensible language, but it turned out that they were fighting over a piece of frog. As I looked further forward, there they were.

The automata lined the walls, silent and motionless. They had a human form, like Aigis, but she was very different from the automatons he saw: they were nothing like her, only the androids of science fiction movies that passed in theaters or on television. They wore the livery of the Lightwood house, each with an oruboro painted on the left side of the chest. Their faces were empty and featureless, like a picture of an unpainted child.

Minato watched as a young man with blond hair approached him and put a hand on his shoulder, as a gesture of love. Minato, seeing the face of Tessa, could understand that it was her brother, Nate.

Trying to disguise, Minato told Alice to dance, which caused the girl to make a squeak of happiness. Both had been the focus of attention in the dance of all supernatural beings. The orchestra was represented by a group of purple-skinned little men dressed in silver tights, who were playing a waltz.

While on the dance floor, he watched Tessa's brother dance with her on the dance floor. He could see how Tessa exchanged words with her brother, trying to release information. While he and Alice danced, the look in Minato's blue eyes was fixed on a Gideon Ligthwood, very elegant in his suit, although he was very tense, leaning against one of the walls as if he were stuck there. Only his eyes moved around the room. Gabriel was going from here to there, with a glass of what looked like lemonade in his hand and his bright eyes of curiosity wandered to where Minato was with Alice dancing, like the other supernatural beings, but Alice gave off an aura of death, making that they should remain in their places.

Minato observed that Benedict Lightwood was lying on a scarlet velvet sofa near the orchestra. He was without a jacket, with a glass of red wine in his hand and his eyes half closed. Leaning on his chest, he saw that there was a woman, or at least he was shaped like a woman. Long loose hair, dressed in black velvet with a large neckline and the head of small snakes coming out of his eyes, hissing. While Minato watched, one of the snakes drew a forked legua and licked Benedict Lightwood in the face.

The demon woman was no more than Adam's first wife in Eden: Lilith. Although the Lilith there shared some traits with her Persona of the Devil's Arcana, but she had a serpent the size of a boa that surrounded her. Anyway; she was one of many copies of the Amala Multiverse, as were the demons, angels and YHVH itself in different universes.

Inside Minato's mind, he could hear how his Persona whistled sarcastically at the Lilith in a bodice, while his Lilith Persona laughed out loud.

He felt sorry for the Lightwood brothers for the party their father had orchestrated. He looked around, and located Will.

He was leaning against the wall in front of them, between two empty chairs. Despite the mask, Minato could see that Will's condition seemed tense and furious.

"It seems that the shadowhunter feels very jealous because his lady is with another man, as she is with the other with silver hair, do not you think, Minato?" Alice answered in a funny and sarcastic way.

Minato observed that Tessa had said something to her brother, who nodded and took her elbow and guided her to one of the chairs lined up against the wall in the other corner. He saw how a woman next to her started the conversation with Tessa. The woman was tall and thin with a long loose hair the color of the petals of lavender. Her skin was light blue, her dress was a long, vaporous gas and tulle make-up. She was barefoot, and between her fingers were fine fabrics like those of a spider, a blue darker than the skin. Minato heard that Pixie had explained that she was a fairy. After an hour of talking, he noticed that Will was walking towards her, which took a signal and they left the dance floor. When he was going to meet Tessa, the fairy stopped him.

"You danced very lovely on the dance floor" said the fairy with a smile and soft voice. "Especially you, girl, are you sure your parents let you in?"

Alice smiled at the fairy.

"Of course yes, it was my uncles who gave me permission to enter the dance" he gestured to Minato. "He is my companion that my uncles put me so that she would not be alone"

"I see" the fairy looked with her light blue eyes to the blue indigo eyes of Minato. "You have a kind of powerful magic around you, just like the fairies, just like you, miss..."

"Alice." She bowed in her skirt. "I guess you realized that I'm not a common being at all"

"Of course" the fairy smiled. "Your magic is completely different, that makes me think it's demonic, right?"

"Exactly" the girl still had the smile in their corners. "And besides, it's interesting to share conversations with a fairy"

"Of course," she laughed. "We hope to see you soon"

"Yes" Alice's smile turned sinister. "Especially if it were a fairy who likes to ally with a human who has a strong grudge against the nephilim and exchanged the great granddaughter of a nephilim with a human.

The happy attitude of the fairy quickly changed to one of anguish and fear, causing her to enter the crowd and disappear.

"It was a nice conversation, was not it, Minato?" She told the blue haired teenager, who shrugged.

Seeing that Nathaniel Gray had returned to Tessa with a glass of lemonade; she graciously accepted the drink and got up, returning to the dance floor. Minato and Alice sat in the two chairs.

"Some information?" replied Minato to the Welsh Shadowhunter.

"Yes" he replied with a frown. "Jessamine had spied for the brother all this time, but Tessa says that the information told about you and about our scant information" he looked at Minato. "It seems that you and Alice had a lovely talk with the fairy, right?"

"She was very happy in our talk," Alice replied. "Especially when I told her about the exchange between a nephilim baby and a human baby, she took it deeply and said goodbye to us without saying anything" the girl laughed mischievously.

"Then it was true," Will answered with a thoughtful gesture.

"What a thing" said Minato, curious.

"The fairy had told her that she knew the name of Tessa's mother, and she also explained to her that fairies exchanged weak babies with human babies, which made me think that all the pieces fit correctly: she was the one who participated in the Mortmain's plan "he let out an annoyed growl.

"Any plans in case they discover us?"

Will smiled.

"Observe and you will see"

A clothed automaton had approached Nate and handed him a letter on a tray. He read the letter, surprised by the content. He put it in his pocket and kissed Tessa on the cheek, making Will blush, and Alice laughing softly. Nate left the dance floor, followed by the automaton behind him. With him gone, the three went to where Tessa was.

"Tessa," Will replied, standing beside him, still having bright cheeks. He recovered his composure and said: "I see that your brother has received the note"

"Ah," she said, fitting her brother's departure. "You have sent them"

"Yes," he said, very satisfied with himself, Will's cup of lemonade from his hand, finished the rest and left it on the sill. "I had to get him out of here, and we should surely imitate him, before he realizes that the note is false and comes back in. Although I have sent him to Vauxhall, it will take centuries to get there and come back, so we are probably safe..." He broke off, and Minato noticed a sudden alarm in his voice." Tess... Tessa, are you okay? "

"Why you ask?" she asked.

"Your hair," Minato told him.

Tessa took a strand of her hair loose, and put it in front to see it better. Dark chestnut instead of blonde.

"Oh, God." She put her hands to her face and recognized the usual tickles of the Changeling when they began to invade her. "How long ago...?"

"The effects of the Changeover must have been affected by ingesting a substance in the juice you drank," Alice explained. "I know because I can see the color of the glass.

"Alice is right, let's go," Minato replied.

They hurried toward the exit, but a long narrow one across the ballroom, and Minato noticed that Tessa's body was shaking and shivering at the Changing. She stifled a scream when she felt Will's hand nip at it. They walked looking from one side to another; noticing that nobody saw them. Minato told Will that they needed to be in a secluded place, and he led them to one of the balconies with windows of the mansion. Tessa tore the golden mask from her face, and almost collapsed against the balustrade. After closing the doors, Will looked at the blue-haired teenager.

"Minato, what is going on?"

Minato observed Tessa's face; dizzy and overwhelming.

"She feels dizzy," Alice replied.

"How dizzy?" Will said incredulously.

"It is because of the drink she ingested." Minato looked at the welsh nephilim. "And you did it too"

"The lemonade?" Will's mind lit up. "An aphrodisiac!"

Minato raised his hand.

"Posumudi" pronouncing the spell that cure against diseases, Minato healed them.

The two members of the Institute felt as if a spring blizzard had healed them.

"I feel good." Tessa touched her face and let out a sigh. "Thank you, Minato"

"What spell was that?" asked Will curiously.

"It's a spell that allows me to release toxins and poisons from their bodies," Minato explained.

Tessa remembered that she had heard him pronounce it when he told Ryoji that he was curing Will at the opium den in Whitechapel.

"It seems we're in debt to you again, Glas," Will replied with a smile.

"Wow, if it's a pleasant surprise to find them!" a voice called after them in the hall. "And it seems that you have two guests"

The four of them turned to find the origin of the voice, and it was nothing more than Magnus Bane with a cigarette between his thin brown fingers.

"Let me guess," Magnus spoke, letting go of the smoke. It formed a white cloud with the shape of a heart, which became distorted as it moved away from its mouth, expanding and twisting. "You took the lemonade"

Tessa and Will nodded. Tessa spoke first.

"Yes. Nate brought me a glass"

"There was some warlock powder mixed inside," Magnus explained. He was all dressed in black, with no accessories except in his hands. On each finger was a ring with a stone of different color: citrine, lemon yellow, green jade, ruby gorse and blue topaz. "The kind that makes you forget inhibitions and makes you do things that" he coughed delicately "otherwise you would not"

"But we cured him before they did something silly," Alice replied with an optimistic smile.

"Seriously?" Magnus's cat eyes watched the girl and Minato. "And they would be so kind to tell me their names, since you are helping two members of the London Institute"

"My name is Alice" he bowed. "And he is Minato"

Magnus' eyes widened to recognize the japanese warlock.

"So you are Minato Arisato, are not you?" The warlock capable of summoning any kind of deities and heroes of legend "Magnus walked towards Minato and studied him, as if it were a rare object. "You have a magic very different from the one I've never seen in my life, did not you have blue hair?"

"Costume," Minato replied in his reserved and calm voice.

"Cold and reserved boy" the warlock smiled. "An attitude that any lady would be attracted to you with and a good mask you have" he observed Alice. "I can assume that you look like the Alice of Wonderland"

The girl laughed aloud.

"Of course I did, but that was a long time ago, when I was alive" that made Magnus look at her surprised, but she continued: "After having died there, I was raised by uncle Nebiros and uncle Belial"

Magnus let the cigarette come out of his hands. I could not believe what I had heard.

"You said Nebiros and Belial, are they your caretakers?" Magnus could not believe it.

"I called them uncles for being good to me, Magnus Bane, son of Asmodeus"

The mention of his father made Magnus feel numb and pale. That surprised the two members of the Institute.

"Son of Asmodeus?" Will was in shcok. "Magnus, is your father an Infernal Prince?"

Magnus did not answer his question, he was still too quiet for the mention of his father. He moaned and nodded.

"Yes, he is my father" there was a murmur of resentment in his voice.

Minato raised an eyebrow, while Tessa and Will were speechless. Minato decided to lighten the tense atmosphere.

"How did you find us?"

"I have my sources" Magnus crossed his arms. "I thought you would be in a mess. Benedict Lightwood parties have a reputation for being dangerous When I heard you were here..."

"We are well prepared for the danger" Tessa replied with her arms crossed.

Magnus crossed his arms.

"I know, you have a warlock that can invoke any fantasy being" he gestured to Alice. "Including the girl as an example"

Alice laughed darkly and Minato shook her head. Magnus continued.

"One of Camille's human servants is here and he has recognized Will, he has sent me a message, but if they have already recognized one of you, what is the possibility that it will happen again?

"And what do you care if we leave or not?" Will answered with a frown.

"You owe it to me," Magnus replied, his voice steely. "I intend to charge"

Will looked at him. Minato could understand that Will owed something to Magnus. Something that he could understand what his mission was.

"You mean the demon that killed your big sister?" Alice decided to clarify things. "Well, a group of demons are far away from the mansion, it is possible that the one you are looking for" he looked at the warlock, and responded with a childish and innocent voice. "Could you be so kind as to teleport us there, mr. Bane?"

Magnus snapped his fingers, and an extraordinary rain of blue sparks fell on them suddenly. Minato stood his ground without moving when the spell was being performed. They were no longer on the balcony, but on one of the stone paths in the garden, near the pond, and the great Lightwood mansion stood before them, silent and dark. Minato straightened his hair, while Alice looked calm and with a childish giggle. Tessa straightened her messy hair, and Will mumbled bad words in welsh.

"Well," Magnus said in a bored tone. "It has not been so difficult, right?"

Will looked at him without gratitude.

"Magic," he mumbled.

"Teletransposing spells are fun," Alice told him enthusiastically.

"Well, at least she is the only one who understands it" replied Magnus with a smile of triumph.

"Chist" was silenced by Tessa. "Silence, I think someone is coming"

Everyone fell silent, just as a group turned the corner of the house. Minato observed the visitors. Even in the dim light of the moon that stood between the clouds, I saw that they were not human. And they were not downworlders either. They were a group of demons: one with the appearance of a lanky corpse with two black holes for eyes; another half the size of a man, with blue skin and dressed in a waistcoat and trousers, but with a tail with spikes, features of a lizard and a flat nose like that of a snake; a third that looked like a spinning wheel covered with wet red mouths.

Several creatures passed at the same time.

The demons had seen them and had stopped suddenly on the path. A rotting stench emanated from them, covering the fragrance of the trees.

Alice walked towards them quietly, shedding her scent of death, making the demons feel frightened by the presence of one of the Persona of the Arcane of Death.

"Excuse gentlemen," Alice spoke in a polite tone. "One of you has done something wrong to one of my companions" the girl gestured to Will to come closer. "Which of them is responsible?"

The blue eyes of the Welsh nephilim hardened like ice when his gaze went towards the blue-skinned demon with spikes on its tail.

"Your!" his voice carried with anger.

"Eh..." said the demon that Will had pointed out, in a scared voice. "I do not remember..."

"Do not lie," Alice cut him off in her polite tone with a menacing touch.

The demon tried to flee, but its legs were mysteriously frozen. The three demons roared in horror, but these were eliminated by a strong explosion of energy, caused by Alice. Magnus and the two members of the Institutes were shocked by the power of the Persona of Minato.

"Very good" Alice said with her smile becoming more terrifying. He gestured toward the demon with frozen feet. "It's all yours"

Pulling himself out of his stupor, Will drew his dagger of celestial material, and walked toward the blue-skinned demon. When he tried to reason with the nephilim, he only received a huge amount of stabbings with the sharp blade against his head. Will was completely covered with the ichor of the devil; He had finally taken revenge.

With the work done, Alice snapped her fingers, and a powerful bolt of lightning had singed the dead body of the blue-skinned demon.

"Well," Alice began, "it seems that your search for revenge was terminated" a sweet smile formed at their corners. "It was a pleasure to meet you, mr. Bane!" Minato's Persona had disappeared in a blue smoke.

"I think it's better that we go away, let's go, Cyril is waiting for us" he turned his gaze to warlock Magnus Bane. "Then I'll pay you, Magnus"

Will walked to where the four demons came.

"Will... wait" Tessa came forward, both hands on her lap, as she tried to reach him.

Minato was alone with Magnus.

"Interesting," said the warlock, in a thoughtful gesture with his hand on his chin. His cats were in Minato. "She had been able to destroy three demons in a single minute by just making a gesture with her hand, and she also incinerated the demon she had pointed in. Yes, you are a very interesting warlock, I would like to start a conversation with you, but I would take your time, maybe another time "

Minato nodded and said goodbye to the warlock, walking towards the carriage.

"You're an enigmatic warlock, Minato Arisato," Magnus had said, watching the blue-haired teenager disappear into the darkness.

* * *

 **It took me several minutes, and there were some incomedientes.**

 **We'll see you in the next chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Well folks, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

"Oh, for all the saints in heaven!" Sophie exclaimed, jumping out of the chair when Minato, Will and Tessa returned from the party at the Lightwood mansion and opened the door to Jessamine's bedroom. "Young Arisato, what happened?"

"Sophie! Chist!" Tessa waved her hand warning as she closed the door behind her. The bedroom was still as he had left it. Tessa's nightgown and robe were neatly folded on a chair, the broken silver mirror was on the dresser, and Jessamine... Jessamine was still deeply unconscious, with her wrists tied to the bedposts. The maid, sitting in a chair next to the closet, had, no doubt, been there since the three of them left; he clutched a hairbrush with one hand (Minato wondered if it would be to hit Jessamine with him, in case he woke up) and looked at him with big brown eyes.

"But miss..." Sophie left the sentence half-heartedly as she watched Will smeared with dark blood and Tessa a little disheveled. "So terrible has it been?"

Will answered with his voice full of sarcasm.

"Of course not, Sophie, we just collected some information, we danced, and we enjoyed it marvelously" he shrugged. "Until Minato took one of his invoked beings, the rest was entertaining"

The maid whimpered tiredly.

"I'm glad that nothing bad happened to them"

Minato watched the sleeping Jessamine.

"Any news from her while we left?"

"No, there was no movement of miss Jessamine," the maid said, squeezing the brush hard. "I took this in case she woke up"

"Well done," Will commented with folded arms. "Now let's tell Charlotte everything"

The maid looked at him with the eyes of lambs. Minato did not blame her; She was afraid to wake up the director of the Institute, but they were in a very dangerous situation, and it was necessary to tell her the truth.

"But..." Sophie protested.

"We have to do it." Will spoke firmly. "This goes way beyond us, we can not continue acting behind Charlotte's back"

The maid did not protest anymore. She put the brush on the dresser, stood up, and smoothed her skirts.

"I'll go find mrs. Branwell"

Tessa dropped into the chair next to the bed, grimacing when the Jessamine dress pinched her.

"It would be better if I changed.

Will came out last after Sophie, closing the door behind him quietly.

"What a night, right?" Tessa said in an exhausting and tired tone to Minato, who nodded without saying anything.

* * *

Minato stood with his arms crossed on the wall of the room, while Tessa was thoughtfully looking at Jessamine who was still unconscious.

The hours ago was one of the greatest adventures he had had in his old time with the SEES group. Fighting the Shadows and finding new passages or areas in the Tartarus during the Dark Hour was something very incredible for him, but being incognito in a ballroom full of supernatural creatures taken from fantasy stories turned out to be a good experience.

Now he was dealing with one of the potholes Igor and Elizabeth had warned him about: the betrayal of a partner. That had not surprised him at all. He knew very well that Jessamine was going to betray them at any moment, and he had done so during his stay at the Institute. The girl's eyes gave him away. She never wanted to live as a shadow hunter, she just wanted to live a quiet life without worrying about the balance of the supernatural world. He could not blame her; He tried to do everything necessary to obtain his own life without ties. Including if it was necessary to change to the enemy side.

Being in the ballroom was a new experience being in Victorian England. Dancing with Alice at an elegant party was something new for him; since it was his first time doing it, but it was a good time. As for Tessa, the girl must have had a very bad time; dancing with her own brother who had betrayed him must have been very painful for her, but she had to do to get information about Mortmain's plans, and she was.

He watched Jessamine begin to moan. The girl's eyes faintly, as she muttered a low word.

"Minato," said the girl with her eyes fixed on the blue-haired teenager who was stationed on the wall of her room.

Tessa sat up in her seat.

"Jessamine, are you...?"

"What happened?" The girl shook her head from side to side, anxious. "I do not remember" He tried to sit down and gasped when he noticed that his hands were tied. "Minato! Tessa! What...?"

"Do not move," Minato ordered in a chilly, cold voice, causing the girl to sit still for a second. "We know what you did behind us"

Jessamine swallowed nervously.

"It can not be... Sophie, that little monkey, was..."

"We already went to the party, Jessamine," Minato cut him in an icy voice. "You were going to meet Tessa's brother, Natahniel Gray."

"It's true, Jessamine," Tessa told him, trying to keep calm. "I took your place and I know the information you gave Nate"

The girl's jaw snapped open, but her gaze was fixed on the dress.

"My dress," he said in a low voice. "Did you use it?"

Tessa nodded.

The girl's eyes darkened.

"You are an unnatural" he snapped softly. "An unpleasant creature! What have you done to Nate?"

"Nothing, we just danced and told me everything you held in. You were spying for Mortmain," Tessa replied, and wished Will and Sophie would arrive with Charlotte. Why would they be taking so long? "That you betrayed us, informing Mortmain of all ours activities, obeying orders..."

"Ours?!" Jessamine shouted, trying to get up to where the ropes allowed her. "You are a halfblood! And you are a magician or sorcerer! Neither of you owe them loyalty! They do not care about you, nor do I care. "Only Nate cared... "

"My brother," Tessa spoke in a barely controlled voice, "he's a lying murderer, unable to feel, maybe he's married to you, Jessamine, but he does not love you, the shadowhunters have helped me and protected me, just like you. Even so, you are against them like a dog as soon as my brother snaps his fingers, he will abandon you, assuming he does not kill you first"

"Liar!" Jessamine yelled. "You do not understand him, you never did, his soul is good and pure..."

"As pure as the water in a sewer," replied Tessa. "And I understand him much better than you, you're blinded by his charm, he does not care at all"

"Liar..."

"I've seen it in his eyes, I've seen it the way he looks at you"

Jessamine gasped.

"How can you be so cruel?"

Minato shook his head.

"You can not see it, right?" Tessa added inquisitively. "For you, everything is a game, like those dolls in your house: moving them, making them kiss and get married, you wanted a mundane husband, and Nate is enough, you can not see what your betrayal has cost those who always they have taken care of you "

Jessamine showed her teeth; at that moment he looked so much like a cornered animal that Minato stayed where he was, while Tessa almost backed down

"I love Nate," she said. "And he loves me, you're the one who does not understand love. _Oh, I can not decide between Will or Jem, what should I do?_ " she imitated her in a finicky tone, and Tessa blushed furiously. "So what if Mortmain wants to destroy the shadowhunters of Great Britain? By me, they can burn"

Minato grimaced and Tessa stared at her, and just at that moment the door opened and Charlotte entered. She looked emaciated with exhaustion, wearing a gray dress that matched her dark circles, but she walked erect and with clear eyes. Behind her was Will in a new outfit and Sophie, running scared, and a second later Minato saw why: closing the group there was an appearance in a parchment-colored habit and the face hidden under the hood, with a terribly bright sword in it. hand. It was Brother Enoch, of the Silent Brothers, with the Mortal Sword.

"Can we burn? Is that what you said, Jessamine?" Charlotte asked in a hard, penetrating voice that Minato compared to Mitsuru's attitude.

Jessamine gasped. He stared at the sword that Brother Enoch held. Its great hilt was carved in the shape of an angel with outstretched wings.

Enoch raised the Mortal Sword to Jessamine, who leaned back, and the ropes that bound her wrists to the bedposts came loose. His hands fell dead in his lap. She looked at them, and then at the director.

"Charlotte, I can swear that Tessa and he are incriminating me..."

The woman stopped by the bed and looked at the girl.

"That's not the impression I have of both of them from what I've seen, and what about Sophie, she's always been a totally honest maid?"

"He hit me! With a mirror!" Jessamine's face was red with fury.

"And he has done great," Will commented sarcastically and with folded arms.

"Because he found this." Charlotte pulled out the invitation that Tessa had returned to Sophie from her pocket. "Can you explain this, Jessamine?"

"Going to a party is not against the Law" She sounded as moody as scared, "Benedict Lightwood is a shadowhunter..."

"This is Nathaniel Gray's handwriting." Charlotte's voice did not seem to lose its impartiality. There was something about her that made her even more inexorable. "He's a spy wanted by the Clave, and you've been secretly meeting with him, why?"

Jessamine opened her mouth a little. Minato waited for excuses like: "Everything is a lie", "Sophie has invented the invitation", "I only saw myself with Nate to gain his trust", but instead tears appeared.

"I love him," he confessed. "And he loves me"

"So you betrayed us," Will replied with a frown.

"I did not do it!" He raised his voice. "Whatever Tessa says, it's not true, he's lying, he's always jealous of me, and he's lying!"

Charlotte looked at Tessa for a moment. Minato and Will shook their heads together.

"Is she lying? And Sophie?"

"Sophie hates me," Jessamine sobbed. At least, that was true. "You should throw her out on the street, and without references..."

"Stop complicating things, Jessamine, you get nothing." Charlotte's voice cut the girl's sobs like a knife. He turned to Enoch. "It will be easy to get the authentic story, the Mortal Sword, please, brother Enoch"

The Silent Brother approached, pointing at Jessamine with the weapon. Minato stayed where he was while Tessa was horrified.

"No no!" yelled this one. "Get him out of me, Charlotte!" His voice rose to a scream that seemed to grow louder and louder, until it broke Tessa's eardrums.

"Hold out your hands, Jessamine," Charlotte ordered coldly.

The girl shook her head savagely, her hair shaking from side to side.

"Charlotte, no," Tessa interjected, "Do not hurt her."

"Do not interfere with what you do not understand, Tessa" the director answered in a curt voice. "Hold out your hands, Jessamine, or it will go very wrong"

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Jessamine spread her hands, palms up. Minato observed that Tessa tensed. He did not like how they were going to torture Jessamine using the Mortal Sword as a tool of torture.

"Nothing happens," reassured Sophie who was behind Tessa. "It will not hurt you, the Mortal Sword causes the nephilim to tell the truth"

Brother Enoch placed the blade of the sword flat on Jessamine's palms. He did it without force or softness, as if he were almost unaware of her as a person. He dropped the gun and pulled away; even Jessamine looked surprised; the blade seemed to balance perfectly on his hands, totally motionless.

"It's not an instrument of torture, Jessamine," Charlotte explained, hands folded. "We must use it only because otherwise we could not trust you to tell us the truth." He raised the invitation. "This is yours, is not it?"

The girl did not respond. He was looking at Brother Enoch with wide eyes and full of terror, and his chest was moving fast.

"I can not think, not with that monster in the room..." His voice trembled.

Charlotte pursed her lips, but looked at Brother Enoch and said something to him. He nodded, then floated quietly out of the room.

"That's it," the woman said when the door closed. "He'll be waiting in the hallway, do not think he will not catch you if you try to escape, Jessamine"

She nodded. It seemed to crumble, broken like a porcelain doll.

The director waved the invitation.

"This is yours, is not it, and Nathaniel Gray sent it to you, this is your handwriting.

"Yes... yes" The statement seemed to leave Jessamine against her will.

"How long have you been seeing it secretly?"

Jessamine's mouth tightened, but her lips trembled. After a moment, a stream of words erupted from his mouth. She rolled her eyes in surprise, as if she could not believe he was talking.

"He sent me a message just a few days after Mortmain invaded the Institute, he apologized for his behavior with me, he said he was grateful that I had taken care of him and that he had not been able to forget my kindness or my beauty. But a second letter arrived, and a third... I agreed to meet him.I left the Institute in the middle of the night and found ourselves in Hyde Park"

"Enough of that," Charlotte cut her off. "How long did it take to convince you to spy on us?"

"He said he would only work for Mortmain until he could raise enough money to live comfortably, I told him we could live together with my money, but he wanted to accept it, it had to be his, he said he would not live off his wife?"

"And by then I had already asked you to marry?"

"He asked me the second time we saw each other," he explained with a shortness of breath. "He said he knew there would never be another woman for him, and he promised that as soon as he had enough money, I would have the life I've always wanted, that we would never have to worry about money and that we would have children" She sniffed the tears.

Will laughed aloud, Minato shook his head and Tessa covered her mouth in surprise.

"Oh, Jessamine." Charlotte almost looked sad.

The girl blushed.

"It was true, he loved me, he tried it, we're married, we did it the right way in a church with a priest..."

"Surely in a desacralized church with some servant dressed as a priest," Will ventured, still laughing.

"What do you know about worldly weddings, Jessie?" commented Charlotte "How would you know if it was a royal wedding? I give you my word that Nathaniel Gray does not consider you his wife"

"Yes he does, yes, yes, yes!" Jessamine yelled, and tried to move away from the sword. It stuck in his hands as if it had been nailed. Their screams went up an octave. "I'm Jessamine Gray"

Will could not stop laughing.

"You are a traitor to the Clave, what else have you told Nathaniel?"

"Everything," Jessamine snapped. "Where they were looking for Mortmain, what downworlders you had hired to try to find him, that's why he was never where they were wanted. I warned him about the trip to York, so he sent the automata to Will's family home in York. Mortmain wanted to terrorize them so they would stop looking for him, he considers them an annoying pestilence, but he is not afraid of them, he will overcome them, he knows, and I too"

Charlotte leaned toward her, arms crossed on her hips.

"But he could not scare us to stop looking for him," she replied. "And the automatons that he sent to try to capture Tessa failed..."

"Mortmain will do anything to get Tessa, after all, she is a half-breed between a shadow hunter and a demon, which is why Mortmain will not rest in capturing her, his plan is about to be realized, and then it will be the steps to take over the Institute, to capture Tessa..."

"How close are you? Have you managed to open the Pyxis?" inquired Charlotte.

"No ... I do not know, of course not"

"So you have told everything to Nathaniely he has not told you anything... What about Benedict? Why have you agreed to work hand in hand with Mortmain? I've always known he was a nasty man, but it seems very proper of him betraying the Clave"

Jessamine shook her head. He was sweating and his hair stuck to his temples.

"Mortmain has something he wants, I do not know what it is, but Benedict will do anything to get it"

"Including giving me Mortmain," interjected Tessa. Charlotte seemed surprised to hear it and seemed to go to interrupt it, but Tessa went ahead. "What is it about making me falsely accuse me of being in possession of black magic objects? How will you get it?"

"The Book of the White" answered Jessamine. "I... I took it from the closed shelf of the library and hid it in your room when you were not there"

"In what place?"

"A loose floorboard... near the fireplace" Jessamine's pupils were huge. "Charlotte... please..."

But this one did not yield.

"Where is Mortmain, have you talked to Nate about his plans for the Pyxis, for his automata?"

"I..." Jessamine swallowed, trembling. His face was dark red. "I can not..."

"Nate would not tell you," Tessa interjected. "I knew we could discover it and I would think Jessamine would give in to the torture and tell everything.

Jessamine shot him a poisonous look.

"He hates you, you know?" she mumbled. "He says that throughout his life you have despised him, you and your aunt with his stupid provincial morality, judging him by what he did, always telling him what he should do, without wanting to move forward in life"

"I do not care," Tessa lied; his voice trembled a little. "I already know what I am, and I know why Nate hates me"

"We know that Mortmain had had help from a fairy to exchange the real Adele Starkweather with a sickly worldly baby as a substitute," Will replied, entering the conversation. "And it is also known that a demon of Eidolon took the form of Tessa's father and made her pregnant"

"But a son between a demon and a shadow hunter dies when they are born" Charlotte looked bewildered. "That is something that has no explanation"

"Yes, he does," Minato explained, after being silent for several hours. "Tessa's mother did not have runes, nor did she perform a ritual against demonic influences, something that Will had explained to me, she was born because her mother never had runes"

"By the Angel" exclaimed Charlotte, shocked. "Everything makes sense now" he looked at Jessamine. "If Tessa's mother was a Shadowhunter, then Nathaniel is also a mestizo, the blood between the two species running through his veins, did he ever mention it to you, what was a halfblood?"

The girl looked at her disgustedly.

"Nate is not a halfblood like her!" she bellowed. "I would have known! I would never have married..." She left the sentence hanging and bit his lip.

"Well, it's one thing or another, Jessamine," remarked Charlotte. "Either you have married a halfblood, which would be supreme irony, or, most likely, you have married a liar who will use you and throw you in. He must have known that we would finally discover you. Would it happen to you then?"

"Nothing" Jessamine seemed upset. "He said that you were weak, that you would not punish me, that you would not have the courage to do me real harm"

"He was wrong," the director replied. "You betrayed the Clave, and Benedict Lightwood, too, when the Consul finds out about this..."

Jessamine laughed with a weak and broken sound.

"Tell him, that's exactly what Mortmain wants," she mumbled. "D... do not bother asking me why, I do not know, but I know he wants it, so just let go of whatever you want, Charlotte, you'll only get it in your power"

She clung to the wood at the foot of the bed, with such force that her hands went white.

"Where is Mortmain?"

Jessamine shuddered and shook her head, her hair floating from side to side.

"Do not..."

"Where is Mortmain?"

"It's... it's" he gasped. "It's..." Jessamine's face was almost purple, and her eyes bulged. He was grasping the Mortal Sword with such force that the blood drained between his fingers. Minato looked at Charlotte, who stood firm. "Idris," Jessamine finally let go, and collapsed on the pillow.

"Idris?" repeated Will, frowning. "Is Mortmain in Idris, our home?"

Jessamine blinked.

"No. It's not there"

"Jessamine!" Charlotte seemed about to jump on the girl and shake her until her teeth chattered. How can he be in Idris and not be? Save yourself, stupid girl. Tell us where it is!"

"Please!" Jessamine yelled. "Stop, it hurts..."

Charlotte looked at her with great hardness. Then she went to the door of the room; When he returned, Brother Enoch was with her. He crossed his arms over his chest and pointed at Jessamine with a flick of his chin.

"Something is not right, brother, I asked him where Mortmain was, he said that in Idris, when I asked him again, he denied it." His voice hardened. Jessamine! Has Mortmain broken the protection spells on Idris?"

It let out a strangled sound; the air whistled as it entered and came out of his chest.

"No, he has not... I swear... Charlotte, please"

 _'Charlotte'_ Brother Enoch spoke firmly, and his words rang through the minds of the whole room. _'Enough. There is some kind of blockage in the girl's mind, something that Mortmain has put there. It provokes us with the idea of Idris, but she confesses that he is not there. These blocks are very strong. If you continue to interrogate her like this, the heart could fail her'_

Charlotte pulled away, defeated.

"So what...?"

"I will," Minato replied, walking towards Jessamine.

"What?" Charlotte was confused. "Minato, I do not know if..."

 _'Let him do it, Charlotte,'_ replied Brother Enoch. _'Minato Arisato has a magical power that goes beyond the powers of a warlock. May he do it'_

"All right," Charlotte moaned. "Do it, but delicately"

Minato nodded. He stretched his right hand toward Jessamine's head. The girl moaned in terror, trying to stay away from him. Using Circe's power, Minato's hand flashed a yellow light. He raised the palm of his hand with the brightness in it, and the magic of the Sorceress Goddess went straight to Jessamine's forehead. The girl let out a scream, but Minato paid no attention. After unblocking the blockade, Jessamine moaned in pain as she lay back on her pillow.

"Ready," Minato told them, going back to where he was.

The Silent Brother, the director, and the three members of the Institute watched in fascination as Minato had removed Jessamine's spell.

"Brother Enoch," Charlotte said, turning to the Silent Brother. "Jessamine..."

 _'Jessamine Lovelace no longer has the blocking spell. It has been removed from his mind without harm'_ Enoch observed looking at Jessamine who was trembling with fear. ' _You have a very peculiar power to be a warlock, Minato Arisato'_

"It's not for nothing that they call him Messiah," smiled Will.

 _'Interesting'_ answered Enoch. _'Very interesting'_

"What will happen to Jessamine?" commented Tessa, going back to the previous topic. "Now that she was unlocked from the spell that had him in her mind, will she be able to tell us the truth?"

Charlotte turned her attention to her.

"Jessamine," the director began in a modest, soft tone. "Where is Mortmain?"

"Idris," she repeated, her voice guilty and sad. "He's in Cadair Idris"

"What?!" Will exclaimed with a slight surprise. "You said Cadair Idris!"

"Calm down, Will," Charlotte answered in a stern voice, she gaze on Jessamine. "In what part of Cadair Idris is Mortmain hidden?"

"On Lake Llyn Mwyngil. That's where he hides with his automatons"

"Lake Llyn Mwyngil?" Tessa replied confused.

"The lake Llyn Mwyngil which is located in Gwynedd north of Machynlleth," Will said, maintaining his composure. "In legends and stories they say that the lakes around the mountain have no bottom, that the mountain itself is hollow and the Cwn are sleeping in. The Hounds of the Underworld"

"Oh, for the Angel" Charlotte's migraine was on the rise. "So long looking for Mortmain, and now we can stop him" she looked at the girl. "Jessamine Lovelace; you are considered a traitor to the Clave and the Institute of London for committing the act of spying for Axel Mortmain You will be sent to the Silent City where you will spend the rest of the day waiting for the members of the Clave to find you and take you to Idris"

"The City of Bone?" whisper. "Where do the dead lie? No! I will not go there! I can not stand that place!"

"No buts, Jessamine, you're a traitor," the director replied, her voice glacial.

Jessamine began to sob. Charlotte ignored him. Brother Enoch forced her to get up; He resisted, but the Silent Brother held her tightly with one hand, while the other closed on the hilt of the Mortal Sword.

"Charlotte!" Jessamine screamed. "Charlotte, please, to the Silent City, no, please do not send me alone to that... to that cemetery! I'll die of fear!"

"You should have thought about that before betraying us," the woman replied. "Brother Enoch, take her away, please"

The girl kept shrieking when the Silent Brother picked her up and put her on his shoulder. Minato maintained his composure of taciturn without doing anything, while Tessa looked at them open-mouthed, he left the room, taking her away. Jessamine's screams and sobs echoed in the hallway long after the door closed behind them... and then they stopped abruptly.

"Jessamine..." began Tessa.

"She was a traitor, Tessa," Will said with a frown. "She looked for it"

"Nothing has happened to him, surely he must have put a rune of silence, that's all, there's nothing to worry about," said the director of the Institute, and sat on the edge of the bed. She looked at her hands, thoughtful, as if they did not belong to her. "Henry..."

"Should I wake him up, mrs. Branwell?" Sophie asked softly.

"He's working in the crypt, working... I did not want to disturb him." Charlotte's voice was distant. "Jessamine has been with us since she was a little girl, it would have been too much for him, too much. Henry is not capable of any cruelty"

"Charlotte." Tessa touched his shoulder gently. "Charlotte, you are not cruel either"

"I do what I have to do, there's nothing to worry about," she insisted, and burst into tears.

* * *

"Jessamine?" Henry repeated, which must have been the fifth or sixth time. "I can not believe it, our Jessamine?"

Minato noticed that every time he said it, Charlotte tensed her lips a little more.

"Yes," Charlotte said again. "Jessamine, he's been spying on us and informing Nathaniel of all our movements, that he passed the information to Mortmain, should I repeat it again?"

Henry looked at her surprised.

"Sorry, honey, I've been listening to you, just what..." He sighed. "I knew I was not happy here, but I did not think he hated us"

"I do not think he did it, or he does," said Jem, who was standing by the fireplace in the living room, one arm on the mantelpiece. They had not met for breakfast as usual; he had not officially said why, but Minato supposed that the idea of going to breakfast, with Jessamine's place empty, as if nothing had happened, had been too much for Charlotte.

She had only cried for a moment that night before regaining her composure; she had rejected Sophie's and Tessa's attempts to help her with cold cloths or tea; he had shaken his head dryly and repeated that he should not allow himself to sink like that, that it was time to put everything in its place. Minato accompanied Charlotte to Tessa's room, followed by servant Sophie and Tessa herself, and Will as well. He checked the floorboards, even took out a little book, like a family bible, bound in white leather and wrapped in velvet. He gave it to her, and she put it in her pocket with an expression of determination. She thanked Minato, and told Sophie to tell Bridget to serve a simple breakfast in the living room, and tell Cyril to inform the men. Then he was gone.

Minato decided to walk to his own room and change his clothes, just as Tessa did with the help of the maid, while Will went to the living room to wait for them. Minato had put on a dark gray shirt and black pants. His dark blue hair was still in the same color; with the hair that barely covered his left eye.

He went down the stairs and sat in his chair on the left side, where Will was looking draining. When Jem entered the dining room, he had sadness and weariness reflected in his face. The boy had dark circles and looked away from Tessa when she entered and sat down in her chair. Will raised his eyebrow, while Minato remained silent without meddling; the two had not yet overcome their privacy in Jem's room; a secret that only Ryoji had heard. Being in the crossfire in a love triangle if worse than fighting demons in Victorian London and facing the Shadows in the Dark Hour.

"I do not think he hated us... hate," Jem repeated at that moment, correcting the use of the past. "It has always been someone full of desires, she has always been so desperate..."

"Desperate?" repeated Will with disgust. "She betrayed us because of her own desire to be free of us, Jem"

"It's my fault," Charlotte said in a low voice. "I should not have forced her to admit that she is a shadow hunter when it was something she despised so eagerly"

"You see," Will said with a grimace.

"Will!" Jem replied without raising his voice.

"No, no!" Henry hastened to reassure his wife. "You've always been kind to her, you've done everything you can, there are mechanisms that are so... broken that they can not be fixed"

"Jessamine is not a clock, Henry," his wife replied in a remote tone. Minato wondered if she would still be angry at her husband for not welcoming Woosley Scott to her, or if she was just angry at the world. "This is the second time we have had a spy under our roof without knowing it until after considerable damage has been inflicted, obviously i am incompetent"

"In a way he's been just a spy," Henry began, but he stopped when Charlotte shot him a look that might have melted the crystal.

"If Benedict Lightwood is working for Mortmain, he can not be allowed to be a member of the Clave Council," Will said, folding his arms. "The truth is that the dance he offered last night should be enough to disqualify him"

"The problem will be to prove it" replied Jem. "Benedict will deny everything, and it will be..."

"Do not forget we have the Messiah." Will pointed a thumb at Minato. "After all, it was he who summoned the archangel Metatron and released Ithuriel from his confinement, he has helped us so many times that I forgot the account"

All eyes on Minato, who was in his taciturn and calm state. He cocked his head, confused.

"It's true," Charlotte acknowledged. "Since you came from nowhere to help us against the automata of Mortmain, your single presence has helped us a lot"

"Charlotte is right" said Jem. "If Minato had not summoned Metatron to the Council, we would be in a race against time looking for Mortmain, not to mention handing over the Institute to Benedict Lightwood."

"Very true" Will smiled. "You have invoked two scottish heroes, a buddhist god, the son of Nyx, a girl who calls uncles to two Infernal Princes, and a fairy queen"

"And also a greek goddess as a mentor in my training to control my power," added Tessa.

"Oh, for the Angel." Charlotte let out a moan with a half smile. "You do know how to surprise us, do not you, Minato? The Institute has been filled with mythology and ancient legends"

He shrugged and nodded.

"Reserved as always," Will commented with a smile.

"And he also has two mundane instruments that are very advanced," Henry said, scratching his chin. "I was curious how your summoning weapon is composed and that cylinder that you have with those headphones"

Minato looked at him with a blank face; It was already the number of times that Henry wanted to study the Evoker and the mp3, but at least he hid his cell phone.

"What will happen to Jessamine?" Minato asked, trying to change the conversation.

"She will be in the Silent City with the rest of the criminals who revolted with the Law, then a carriage from the Clave will look for her to be taken to Alicante"

"Well." Will stretched out his arms. "At least we know where Mortmain and his mechanical army are hiding"

"I think that would not be so easy, Will," Jem told him.

"What? But..."

"Jem is right, Will," Charlotte replied. "We do not know if Mortmain will cheat us as soon as a group is sent to Gwynedd, it would be a suicide and a loss of life to do the mission"

Minato grimaced. There was also a possibility that Mortmain knew who Minato was and what his invoking power was, he was warned by the idea that he had summoned Shadows in his hiding place in case they already knew Jessamine's betrayal. The nephilim only hunted demons of other dimensions, but fighting a Shadow would be something they had never seen in their lives.

"Then what do we do?" Tessa asked, anguished.

The director of the Institute moaned in a dejected way.

"I do not know, Tessa, we'll have to wait and think of a solution on how to stop Mortmain."

"Good," Will huffed in a low, bitter voice.

"What Nathaniel Gray?" replied Minato, gaining the attention of all the astonished looks.

"Very true," Charlotte agreed. "Nathaniel Gray can pose a danger to us if he continues to walk the streets of London, he must be delivered before the Law of the Clave as a conspirator and a spy in the service of Mortmain"

Tessa swallowed nervously. Reencounter again with his brother made him tense, but he must be strong; she had already been trained by the shadowhunters' combat arts, and had learned the use of magic by Circe and Titania. It was time to tie loose ends.

All members of the Institute and Minato went to prepare to capture Tessa's brother.

* * *

The rest of the day at the Institute passed an atmosphere of great tension, while shadowhunters and Minato prepared to face Nathaniel Gray that night. Again there were no formal meals, just hustle and bustle. The weapons were taken out and cleaned, while Minato prepared his Persona from each Arcana for the mission. The equipment was prepared and maps were consulted, while Bridget, humming sad ballads that Alice would be happy to invite her to at a tea party; that must be horrible. The scottish maid carried trays of sandwiches and teacups up the aisles.

Minato had the Evoker stored in the waistband of his black pants, and his Persona of each Arcana were ready. He wore a threadbare black jacket that contrasted with his pants and shoes. The black dress was what shadow hunters used when hunting demons, which reminded the characters of monsters hunting medieval games. The nephilim womens also wore them, which must have been a scandal in the conservative society of Victorian London when they saw a woman wearing men's trousers, but in shadowhunter society it was very normal among them that women use them; something that his female gender as Scathach, Artemis, Circe and among others accepted honorably.

Entering the library, the small group of shadowhunters of the Institute, Jem, Will, Henry, and Charlotte, all already equipped, were gathered around a table where a small oval artifact made of brass was balanced. Henry made animated gestures towards him, raising his voice.

"This," he was saying, "is what I've been working on, for this occasion, it's specifically calibrated to work as a weapon against mechanical assassins."

"No matter how bored Nathaniel Gray is," Will said, "he does not have a head full of nuts, Henry. It's human"

"He may bring creatures with him, we do not know if he will appear alone, at least that Mortmain's mechanical coachman ..."

"I think Henry is right," Tessa interjected, and everyone turned to look at them both. Minato observed that Jem blushed less intensely at Tessa's dress, and offered her a half-sided smile. Will looked at them, especially Tessa from top to bottom, calmly.

"You look great in your attire, Glas." His blue-eyed gaze went to Tessa. "You do not look like a boy at all," he observed. "You look like a girl dressed as a man"

Tessa grimaced.

"I'm just trying to fool the bystander," she replied annoyed. "Nate knows that Jessamine is a girl, and the clothes will fit better when I use the Change in her"

"Maybe you should do it now," suggested Will.

Tessa stared at him, then closed her eyes. Minato watched as Tessa used the Changed; Her hair uncoiled and she collapsed in silky waves against her face. He put it back under his hat and opened his eyes.

Everyone was staring at her. Minato remained in his own state without being surprised, while Jem offered him a smile.

"Amazing," Henry exclaimed. His hand was resting on the object of the table.

"What is it?" replied Minato, his eyes fixed on Henry Branwell's invention.

"It's a kind of... hellish artifact that Henry has created," Jem replied. "It is supposed to interfere with the internal mechanisms that make mechanical creatures work"

"You twist it, like that" the man mimicked the gesture of turning the bottom part to one side and the top to the other, "and then you throw it in. Try to fit it on the creature's cogwheels wherever it can be held. It interferes with the mechanical currents that run through your body, causing it to could also cause you some damage, even if you are not mechanical, so do not stay close once it is activated.I only have two, so... "

He handed one to Jem, and another to Charlotte, who took it and hung it on his belt without saying anything.

"Has the message been sent?" Tessa asked.

"Yes. We're just waiting for your brother's response," Charlotte replied. She unrolled a piece of paper on the surface of the table, and fixed it to the tips with copper wheels of the pile that Henry must have left there. "This," she explained, "is a map that shows where Jessamine says she and Nathaniel usually meet up, it's a warehouse on Mincing Lane, near Lowe Thames Street, it was a tea-packing factory until the business went bankrupt"

"Mincing Lane," Jem said. "The center of the tea market, also of the opium market, it makes sense that Mortmain keeps a warehouse there." He ran a thin finger over the map and traced the names of the streets: Eastcheap, Cracechurch Street, Lower Thames Street, St. Swithin's Lane. "But what a strange place for Jessamine, she had always dreamed of such elegance, to be presented at the Court, to be spectacular gathered by the dances... and she was forced to hold clandestine meetings in a grimy warehouse near the docks"

"He said he did what he had to do," Tessa replied. "He has married someone who is not a shadow hunter"

Will gave a half smile.

"If the marriage were valid, it would be your sister-in-law"

Tessa shuddered.

"It's not that I hold a grudge against Jessamine, but she deserves something better than my brother"

"Anyone deserves better than him." Will reached under the table and pulled out a roll of cloth. He spread it on the board, without touching the map. Inside were several long, thin weapons, each with a glowing rune engraved on the blade. "I almost forgot that Thomas asked for them weeks ago, they just arrived, mercies: good to put them between the joints of these watchmaking creatures"

"The question is," Jem interjected, while raising one of the mercies and examining the page: "Once we put Tessa inside to meet with Nathaniel, how are we going to observe the rest of their meeting without being seen? intervene at any time, especially if Nathaniel reveals any suspicion"

"We must get there first and hide," Will proposed. "Besides having Glas with his suicidal invocations"

"I do not like the idea of Tessa being forced to talk to him," muttered Jem.

"But remember that we have Minato on our side, and also that Tessa had received lessons from a fairy queen and a Greek goddess, she is ready to face danger, and Mortmain may have put a block to protect her. the memories, just like he did with Jessamine"

"It's true what Will says," said Tessa. "Mortmain had put a blocking spell on Jessamine in case she got caught, and it's possible she did it with Nate"

"It would have been better if I used one of my new inventions with him..." Henry began.

"Henry!" Charlotte seemed really alarmed. "Tell me you have not been working on an instrument of torture"

Minato raised an eyebrow, very curious about the new contraption.

"Not at all, I call it the Confusor, it emits a vibration that directly affects the human brain and makes it incapable of distinguishing between fiction and reality." The man, very proud, went to pick up his box. "He will simply release everything he has in his head, without paying any attention to the consequences..."

His wife raised a hand in warning.

"Not now, Henry, if we must use the... Confusor with Nathaniel Gray, we will do it without using your device, we already know where Mortmain is, for the moment we need to get to the warehouse, I suggest Cyril take us there and then come back for her"

"Nate will recognize the coach of the Institute," objected Tessa. "When I saw Jessamine leaving to meet Nate, I was definitely going to walk."

"You will be lost," warned Will.

"No," Tessa contradicted, pointing to the map. "It's a simple walk, I can turn left on Gacechurch Street, follow Eastcheap and cut to Mincing Lane"

Minato remained idle without saying anything, while the others discussed whether Tessa should go alone through the streets of London. In the end it was decided that Henry would take the carriage to Mincing Lane, while Tessa would walk, followed at a distance by Cyril, in case it got lost in the cramped, dirty and noisy city. She accepted with a shrug; everything was clear.

"I guess no one is going to mention," Will said, "that once again we leave the Institute without any shadow hunter to protect it"

Charlotte rolled the map with a doll set.

"And who are you going to suggest to stay at home instead of going to help Tessa?"

"I have not said anything about someone going home." Will lowered his voice. "But Cyril will be with Tessa, Sophie only received training from Scathach herself and from a Buddhist god, and Bridget..."

Minato looked at the maid, who was sitting quietly in a corner of the library, but the girl did not seem to have heard Will. Meanwhile, Bridget's voice was dimmed from the kitchen, with another sad ballad:

 _And John from the pocket pulled out_

 _A long, sharp knife_

 _And his brother's heart went through,_

 _And blood flowed in abundance._

 _John said to William: "Take my shirt,_

 _And rip it from wound to wound,_

 _Wrap your bleeding heart in it,_

 _And the blood will stop flowing"_

In Minato's mind, Alice said it was a beautiful song, while the Arcana of the Devil and Death were right.

"For the Angel," Charlotte exclaimed, "we're going to have to end up doing something before it drives us all crazy, do not you think?"

Before anyone could respond, two things happened at the same time: there was a knock on the window, which made Minato ready to summon any Persona, and a resonant and powerful noise was heard throughout the Institute, the noise of the call bell. Charlotte said something to Will, who was lost in the sound of the bell, and he left the library, while the director crossed it, opened the window and grabbed something that was outside.

He walked away, with a piece of paper fluttering in his hand; It looked a little like a white bird, with the edges flapping in the breeze.

"From Nathaniel, I suppose," Charlotte deduced, "Your message to Jessamine"

She took it to Tessa, who tore along the cream-colored parchment in his eagerness to open it.

Tessa looked up.

"It's from Nate," she confirmed. "Get to meet Jessamine in the usual place at dusk..." He let out a little cry when, as if recognizing that it had already been read, the note burned, and burned to a thin layer of black ash in the Finger.

"That gives us little time," Henry observed. "I'll go tell Cyril to prepare the carriage." He looked at his wife, as if waiting for his approval, but she only nodded without looking at him. With a sigh, Henry left the library, and almost collided with Will, who was returning followed by someone covered in a traveling cloak. Minato wondered if he was a Silent Brother, until the visitor pulled back the hood and Minato saw a familiar curly blond hair and green eyes.

"Gideon Lightwood?" the young man with blue hair asked surprised.

"There you have it" The director put the map she had in her pocket hand. "The Institute will not run out of shadowhunters"

Sophie quickly got up and immediately froze, as if she were from the training room, she did not know very well what to do or what to say in front of the elder of the Lightwood brothers.

He looked around the room. As always, his green eyes were calm, serene. Will, after him, in comparison seemed to burn with great energy, although he was only standing there.

"Have you called me?" the newcomer asked, and Minato realized that, of course, he was looking at Tessa changed in Jessamine. "And here I am, although I do not know why or why"

"To train Sophie, obviously," Charlotte replied. "And also to keep an eye on the Institute while we're not in. We need an adult shadowhunter to be present, and you fulfill that requirement. The truth is that Sophie suggested it"

"And how long will they be out?" He looked at Minato. "And why is Minato Arisato going with you?"

"We'll be out for two hours, or three, not all night, and Minato will accompany us on this mission"

"Very well." Gideon began to unbutton his cloak. There was dust on his boots and, through his hair, it looked as if he had been outside in the cold wind, without a hat. "My father would say it is a good practice when I lead my own Institute"

"It could well be that the Institute was yours as a simulation," the director told her in a polite tone. "In any case, we thank you for your help, the Institute is the responsibility of all the shadowhunters of our residence, our home, Idris, far from home"

Gideon turned to Sophie.

"Are you ready to train?"

Before the two could leave, Minato put them up. He pulled out the Evoker and squeezed the trigger on his temple. The fragments of the blue crystal formed with the fog, revealing the human form of Ryoji. He greeted them amicably.

Gideon and Sophie were surprised by the invocation of the Death Bearer, while the members of the London Institute were curious by summons.

"They will need help in case there is an attack by the automata" Minato replied in his monotonous voice. "Ryoji also knows how to fight"

Gideon nodded without hesitation and walked to the training room, with the maid behind him.

"I leave everything to you," Minato told the human avatar of Thanatos, who nodded.

Charlotte put her hand on Tessa's cheek.

"We'll see each other in the warehouse," he told her. "You will be completely safe, Tessa, and thank you for doing this for us" he looked at Minato and then at Tessa. "Both." She dropped his hand and went down the steps. Henry followed, and Will went after him, followed by Minato. Jem hesitated a moment, and Tessa, remembering a night like that, when he had run up the stairs to say goodbye, gave her a squeeze on the wrist.

"Mizpah," he said.

He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and went to the carriage, where the others were.

"They will be fine, Tessa, Minato is with them," Ryoji Mochizuki told him in a reassuring tone.

"I hope so," she moaned with anguish and tension.

* * *

The warehouse was a large limestone building surrounded by a black wrought iron fence. The windows were covered with boards, and a solid iron padlock closed the entrance gate, on which the blackened name of Mortmain and Company. He looked barely under layers of soot.

Minato and the shadowhunters left the carriage next to the sidewalk, with a glamor to avoid being robbed or vandalized by the mundanes that passed by, at least until Cyril arrived to wait for him. A detailed inspection of the padlock revealed to Will that it had been recently lubricated and opened; a rune took over the lack of a key. The others and he were placed inside, and closed the vejas.

Another rune crossed the door and let them pass a set of offices. Only one was still furnished, with a writing, a green screen lamp and a flowered sofa with a high back and carved.

"No doubt where Jessamine and Nathaniel conducted most of the courtship," Will observed cheerfully.

Minato shook his head and Jem made a noise of disgust and pressed the cane with the cane. Charlotte was at the desk and hastily searching the drawers.

"I had not realized that you two were against courtship," Will told Minato and Jem.

The only moments that Minato had intimacy were with Mitsuru and Elizabeth.

"Not on principle, the idea of Nathaniel Gray touching someone ..." He grimaced in disgust. "And Jessamine is totally convinced that he loves her, if you saw her, I think even you would pity her, Will"

"No," said Will. "Unrequited love is ridiculous, and it makes people behave in an equally ridiculous way." He pulled on the bandage as if it hurt. "Charlotte? The desk?"

"Nothing" The director closed the drawers. "Some papers with lists of tea prices and the schedule of the auctions but, apart from that, only dead spiders"

"How romantic!" Will murmured. He went behind Minato and Jem, since he had gone to the adjacent office, breaking cobwebs with the cane. The next rooms were empty, and the last one looked into what must have been the storage area. It was a cavernous and gloomy space, with the ceiling disappearing in the darkness. Rough stone steps led to a gallery on the first floor. Against the wall were some sackcloth sacks, which looked like collapsed bodies among the shadows. Will raised his stone of magical light and sent rays of light throughout the ship, while Henry went to inspect one of the sacks. He came back in an instant, shrugging.

"Pieces of tea leaves" reported. "Ceylon, for the look"

But Jem was shaking his head as he looked around.

"I am totally willing to accept that this was the office of a tea shop at some point, but it is clear that it had been closed for years, possibly that Mortmain decided to take an interest in the mechanisms, but there is no dust on the floor." by the wrist and made him pass the ray of magic light on the wooden floor. "There has been activity here, something more than just Jessamine and Nathaniel meeting in the office"

"There are more offices out there," said Henry, pointing to the bottom of the ship. "Charlotte and I will check them in. Will, Jem, Minato, investigate upstairs"

It was something strange and novel that Henry gave orders; Will looked at Jem and Minato and smiled wryly, and started toward the rickety wooden staircase. The steps creaked under the weight, and also under Minato's lighter weight; He had his left hand in his Evoker in case it was a trap. The magical light of Will drawn definite forms of light against the wall as they reached the last step.

They found themselves in a gallery, a platform where tea trunks might have been stored, or from where their foreman would have watched the floor below. It was empty, except for the body because of a body on the ground. The body of a man, thin and young. Minato observed the characteristics of the man on the ground were what he had seen when he went towards Whitechapel; silver hair and dark clothes; her eyes closed and looking purple, surrounded by silver lashes.

"Will?" He called him Jem from behind. He passed his gaze from Will's silent and stunned face to the limp body, and he and Minato knelt beside the limp body. Jem caught the man's wrist just as Charlotte was climbing the stairs. For an instant he looked at her in surprise; her face was shiny with sweat and she seemed not to be very well. "He has a pulse, Will?"

Will's gaze was petrified like a stone statue; Minato knew that the welsh shadowhunter had an air of concern about the hair color that was identical to Jem's. He caught the bittersweet smell of the fiery warlock frogas. The man was older and caucasian; he had an incipient silver beard on his chin and cheeks, and his features were larger and less defined. The man's eyes opened. They were silver discs, like Jem's.

"You are a werewolf," said Will. "One of those who do not have a pack, you went to buy yin fen at the ifrits in Chapel, right?"

The lycanthrope looked between the three of them and finally nailed her to Minato and Jem. He narrowed his eyelids, and unexpectedly grabbed Jem's arm.

"You two" he breathed. "You're one of ours, will not you have a little bit of dust? And you too, warlock?"

Jem leaned back. Will took the lycanthrope by the wrist and made him release Jem. It was not difficult; That hand had little strength.

"Do not touch it." He heard his own voice as distant, cut and cold. "It does not have any of your nasty dust, it does not work with the nephlim like you"

Minato still had his hand in the Evoker and some clever spells. He must not lower his guard.

"Will" There was a plea in Jem's voice: _Be kinder._

"You work for Mortmain," Will said. "Tell us what you are doing for him, tell us, now"

The werewolf laughed. The blood leapt from his lips and dripped down his chin. He stained Will's suit slightly.

"As if... I was going to know... where is the Magister" he breathed. "Stupid idiots, all three, stupid nephilim and a cowardly warlock, if I had... my strength... I would smash them..."

"But you do not have it" Will was implacable. "And maybe I do have a little bit of yin fen"

"It's not true, do you think... I would not know?" His eyes roamed the room. "When he gave it to me at the beginning, I saw things... things you could imagine... the big glass city ... the towers of Heaven..." Another spasmodic cough shook him. He spat more blood, with a silver tone, like mercury. There was an exchange of glances between the two nephilim, and Minato knew that it was of concern. The Crystal City. The home of the nephilim who had listened to Jessamine's interrogation. "I thought I was going to live forever, work all night and all day, never get tired, then we started to die, one by one, the drug kills you, but he never said it, I went back here to see if maybe there was still I'm a little bit stuck somewhere, but there's nothing, it's not worth leaving me, I'm dying, I do not care about dying here, anywhere else"

"He knew what he was doing when he gave them the drug," Jem said. "I knew I would kill them, it does not deserve to keep the secret, tell us what I was doing, what I had all day and all night working for"

Riding those things, that metal men. They made your hair stand on end, but the money was good, and the drugs still better... "

"And you see what all this is going to be for you now," Jem replied in a bitter voice, not very recurrent in him. "How often did he make them drink?"

"Six or seven times a day"

"No wonder they're running out of reserves at Chapel," Will mumbled. "Mortmain is controlling the supply"

"It should not be taken like that," Jem explained. "The more you take, the sooner you die, let us help you"

"How?" said the werewolf, his eyes full of red veins. "There is no cure for me, I am already in the last"

"No," Will said. "Our warlock will be able to take you away, it's disease you have, you'd be so kind to do it, Minato"

The blue-haired teenager nodded. He raised his left hand and recited the healing spell against toxins. The werewolf had been completely healed by Minato's spell. The little red eyes in his eyes had disappeared completely; he was healthy.

"What?" the werewolf replied surprised, his voice had returned to normal. He looked at Minato. "Because you did?"

"I did it because it was the right thing to do" replied Minato in a direct and monotonous voice. "You had decided your own way to die, but you had information about the city of shadow hunters, so accept it as a second chance, you can have a job and a herd where you can live"

The werewolf looked at him stunned by the words Minato had said. He put his hand in the center of his chest; the heart was still beating normally. It was something that had no words.

"Thanks," he said. "I am in your debt, I will accept the terms in helping them"

Jem smiled.

"I'm glad you took it easy, there's a place where wolves are herd without a pack, it's called Woosley Scott, and he's going to help you give you a home and a job"

"Woosley Scott," the werewolf repeated. "Yes, I know who he is, I'll go there"

The werewolf made a gracious gesture with his head towards Minato and went to the stairs where Charlotte was. She walked towards them, very surprised.

"Well, Glas," Will answered with a smile at their corners. "It seems that your miracles as the Messiah makes him do it again"

"That's why it was a good idea to bring you," Charlotte commented with a gentle smile. Before she could answer, her face turned light green. He put his hand in his mouth and ran down.

"Charlotte!" Will hissed without raising his voice. "What happened?"

"I do not know," Jem said. "But it seems like it made her want to throw up"

"Want to vomit?" Will repeated, confused.

"It only happens in pregnant women," Minato pointed out without hesitation.

The two nephlim looked at him with expressions of astonishment on their faces. Before Jem could ask a question, the three heard a door open, and a voice called Jessamine. Minato and the two nephilim slowly approached the edge of the gallery to see what was happening on the floor of the ship.

Down below, Tessa's brother, Nathaniel, was seen away from her. He gestured with his hand back, where a squeak drew everyone's attention, and the thing appeared in the shadows. It was gigantic, about six meters high, made of iron. And practically compact. Despite his size, his movements were agile. His features, blurred. The lower part of his body was separated into legs, each one finished on a foot with metal spikes. The arms were similar, and ended in hands with tweezers, and the head was a polished oval with a crack in the mouth, like the crack of an egg. A pair of twisted silver horns rose from the "head." A thin line of blue fire crackled between them.

In his huge hands, he carried a body that had been defeated, dressed in the combat suit of shadowhunters.

"Charlotte!" Will cried, grabbing the edge of the stone hard.

"Will, stop, we can not go help her," Jem said, trying to calm his parabatai. "Yes, we take a wrong step..."

"But we can not let her die!" he replied with anger.

The metal hands of the automaton opened, Charlotte was free and crashed to the floor with a loud swipe. He remained motionless. Minato grabbed his Evoker and triggered the trigger. The form of his Person, Opheus Telos, was manifested. The kinship with Minato astonished the two shadow hunters.

"Help her," Minato ordered.

His Person nodded. He flew towards the automaton and stopped straight ahead; surprising Tessa and Nahaniel. The Initial Persona grabbed the unconscious Charlotte from the ground, and dodged the fingers with pincers of the giant automaton. Henry had left behind the automaton, where he signaled to Orpheus to bring it. The Persona went there; he handed it to Henry, and ran out of the fight, safeguarding the safety of his pregnant wife. The arms of the automaton moved like snakes in an attempt to grab their prey, but Orpheus was a difficult prey to catch.

Grabbing his harp, Orpheus ran his metallic hand over the strings, and a powerful bolt struck the automaton's neck, causing several cables and pieces to fly everywhere. The automaton's head tilted to the right side, his body reeling like a drunkard. Sparks came from the wires and drops of oil soaked his body. Unable to hold on more; the only cable that held the head fell and made a huge loud sound. Without his head, the giant automaton's body leaned back, and its impact on the ground crackled like thunder.

The giant automaton had been defeated.

With his gaze fixed on a stunned Nathaniel Gray, Orpheus gave him a right hook, but not very hard to Nathaniel's face; leaving him unconscious on the ground.

"Mi-Minato?" Tessa replied with a surprised face and amazement at the robotic figure of the Initial Persona.

"No," Orpheus replied in a soft, calm tone; an identical feature of the young man with blue hair. "The Master sent me to help them" he looked at Henry with an unconscious Charlotte in his arms in a bridal style. "She's still alive, she needs to rest, for the baby's health"

"Baby?" Tessa and Henry replied together.

"Tessa! Henry!" Will cried with concern running towards them, followed by Minato and Jem. "Are you both fine ?!"

"Yes, Will," Tessa reassured her, exhausted and anguished. "We are fine"

"Charlotte," Jem's voice was heavy with regret.

"Nothing bad happened to him, Jem." Henry reassured him, and he jerked his head towards Orpheus. "He said he's still alive, he just went unconscious, but that's fine"

The members of the Institute had their eyes fixed on Orpheus and Minato. There were no words to describe the resemblance between the two.

"For the Angel," Jem said, his eyes wide open. "First Ryoji, and then him"

"At least he did us the favor of knocking him out of this idiot," Will said with a frown and arms crossed. His cold blue-eyed gaze was fixed on Nathaniel Gray unconscious on the floor.

"The blow I gave him only affected him enough to leave him without movement," the Master of the Strings told them. "It will take a while to recover your consciousness, goodbye, nephilims." Orpheus had disappeared in a dark blue smoke where he had been.

"The good," Jem answered finally. "It's just that we have Nathaniel Gray"

"Yes," Will said. "You're right" he looked at Charlotte in the arms of Henry and Minato. "When we arrive at the Institute, everything will be resolved"

Minato nodded.

* * *

 **See you in the next chapter.  
**

 **A greeting.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Well folks, I want to thank you for liking this story that I was doing, and also thank all the readers for being aware of my story and my writing.**

 **Thank you.**

 **The Persona saga belongs to the company Atlus, and the trilogy of Infernal Devices belongs to Cassandra Clare.**

* * *

After the fight against the giant automaton, and of having managed to capture Nathaniel Gray, Minato and the rest of the shadowhunters returned to the Institute exhausted and tired, after having spent a great tension in the abandoned warehouse, and of obtaining a Good information from a werewolf who was dying from the warlock drug, they decided it was better to go home. Tessa's brother was found and taken to the Silent City, and while the shadowhunters were in the medical room of the Institute where they put Charlotte in care. She was fine, and the baby too.

"I guess that's a big surprise for us, right?" Charlotte said with a half smile towards the others. She was lying on the bed in black clothes, and her expression was embarrassed by the news of her pregnancy.

"Oh, Charlotte!" Henry kept worrying about the risk that his wife had passed dangerously to the baby in her womb. His hands did not stop shaking. "Why did not you tell them?"

"I thought it was an upset stomach that I had, I did not give importance to it and continued with my work as a director, then when we were in the warehouse ..."

"You had a dizzy spell and you left the room where Jem, Minato and I were," Will said with folded arms.

Charlotte nodded melancholy.

"Oh, for the Angel." Henry was still scared. "But did nothing happen to you and the baby?"

"No," Minato replied, earning everyone's eyes. "The baby did not have anything bad, the automaton dropped it on the floor, which did not affect the fetus in his belly"

Everyone moaned in relief.

"What you summoned," replied Jem, silver eyes set in Minato's blue eyes. "That ... automaton ... had a kinship with you"

"It's true," Will told him. "His face and hair were identical to yours, Minato, and also to Ryoji's"

Ryoji ran a hand down the back of his neck timidly.

"Well ... that's something very ... complicated," he said shyly.

"Will and Jem is right" commented Henry. "First Ryoji, and then that automaton with your kinship that defeated that giant metallic monster by just using its harp called a lightning bolt against the neck"

"And that also gave him a good punch on Nate's face," Will contributed with a cheeky smile at their corners.

"By the Angel," Charlotte moaned tiredly. "If it gives us several surprises, Minato"

He shrugged.

"But," Tessa replied, looking at the blue-haired young man curiously. "Who was he?"

Minato looked at Ryoji, who nodded. With all eyes on him, he decided to tell the nephilim of the Institute the truth. He told them that it was from the future, the death of his parents, the Persona, SEES, the Kirijo Group about putting together the fragments of Death, the invention of the Evoker against the Shadows, the renegade group Strega, and also, the role of Ryoji in the Fall. After telling their story, the members of the Institute were shocked and amazed by all their past.

He had already told his story with Tessa, Will and Jem on the train to York, but he had never mentioned anything about his being of a modern future, nor did he mention that they were part of a universe made up of several thousand of them, and that Minato Arisato himself had been invoked by the creator of the Velvet Room and the collective consciousness of the great multiverse. That's why he decided to tell it little by little without confusing them.

After an extended silence, Henry Branwell was the first to speak.

"Oh, for the Angel!" he exclaimed. "This ... I can not believe it!"

"Now everything fits into the puzzle" replied Charlotte, running a hand over her forehead.

"It seems like the perfect story to make a science fiction book" said Tessa, smiling humorously.

"To generalize everything," said Jem, who was putting in order the information said by the blue-haired japanese teenager. "You come from a modern XXI century Japan where you told us the same story about sharing the train, but you did not mention any of that because it was going to make it too complicated for us to know the truth, right?"

Minato nodded affirmatively.

"This is a lot to assimilate." Charlotte massaged the temples of her head, relieving her headache. "Not only do we have the problem with Mortmain, but all of humanity was going to commit suicide by accepting the end by a powerful primordial deity of worldly mythology." She moaned with fatigue.

"I know what you heard is too horrible" Ryoji smiled weakly. "The humanity wanted an opportunity to redeem their lives, and that is why my mother decided to fulfill her desire to carry out the Fall, but I returned to normal thanks to Minato's will to fight"

"But still ..." The director let out a moan.

"Charlotte, dear, do not worry much," her husband said, reassuring her. "No need to be alarmed more than we are with Mortmain"

"Yes, you're right, Henry." Charlotte laughed weakly at the situation they were in. "Going back to the subject" he cleared his throat. "So, what you invoke are manifestations of your psyche that you and your friends have made to fight against these beings called Shadows, right?"

He nodded silently.

"I see," he continued. "So, what we saw at the Council meeting in Westminster Abbey, Cu Chulainn and Metatron, were simple manifestations of his psyche that took the form of the originals, but they felt so real when I saw them." Every metatron like him flooded his power. about all of us

"All the people that I summon have the appearances of the originals, they are real when you see them"

"Persona," Will repeated, naming the word in spanish. "It is the term that your friends have used to invoke their fragments of their souls to fight against the Shadows, very interesting that the mundanes could fight against a threat that we have never heard".

"And not only that, Will!" Henry said to him with exaltation in his voice, like that of a nine-year-old boy. "They are advanced in technology! That secret group had built automata with human characteristics!"

The mention of Aigis in history had taken them by surprise; That was hard to believe, and it was.

"Aigis has been more human than a machine," Minato explained. "By having a personality interface, he's been learning the emotions when he joined SEES, the more he was with us, the more human he became." His tone was firm and direct, keeping his profile calm without disturbing.

"What I find hard to believe". Will scratched his head. "And to think that the automatons with false skins were creepy".

"Aigis was very different from Mortmain's automatons," he replied calmly.

"And he can also invoke a Persona," Jem said to the conversation.

"Mitsuru had explained that the androids of the Kirijo Group were created to defeat the Shadows, both in weapons and in the invocation of a Persona through an object called the Dusk Plume that allows them to invoke them"

The faces of the nephilim and the maid were more surprised by the new information.

"Incredible," Henry said with emotion in his tone and his eyes shining with emotion. "I have no words to say, so much technology, so many innovations ..."

"The mundanes have a very advanced intellect that ours," Will contributed with his arms crossed.

Being quiet during the conversation, the maid, Sophie, decided to speak:

"Can the rest of your friends also summon different types of Persona like you?" The maid asked, commenting on the word Persona with a little spanish.

"No," Minato told him. "Each of my friends has his own Persona without changing it for another, I have a unique capacity that allows me to summon another Persona, you have seen it"

The maid was confused.

"I do not understand"

"Sophie," said Tessa, "I think Minato refers to Metatron, Scathach, Alice, Cu Chulainn, Titania, Mahakala and Ryoji, that's the skill we've seen, but I agree with her, that means Nobody can see Do members call a different Persona?"

"No," said Minato again. "As I said, my ability is very special and different"

"If that's true," Jem told him. "Are there more of them?"

"Yes," he replied. "I have many of them in my mind, all were useful in the Tartarus to finish the Dark Hour, many of my Persona are powerful, among which Ryoji, Orpheus and Messiah are the strongest." He turned his gaze to Ryoji. "Show them your true form"

Ryoji smiled and nodded. A dark blue aura formed around him, and his human form began to change; Revealing a being with a buttoned blue suit, white gloves and white stockings that covered her two legs with golden heels. On his waist he wears a leather belt with a sword in his black leather case, and some coffins with sculptures of ivory-white monks with swords in his lap, which were tied with chains that were tied behind his back, as if they were wings. The scariest thing was that he had a cadaverous bird mask. The aura he deduced was of darkness and death.

The form of Thanatos had amazed all the members of the Institute. Their faces were pale and open-mouthed. No doubt he was very surprised.

"This is Ryoji's true form when he used it in a dangerous situation," Minato explained to everyone. "Being a manifestation of Death, and at the same time being a shadow, Thanatos is one of my strongest Persona"

"I ... I have no words to say ..." Henry replied stunned.

"It's ... amazing," Charlotte said softly, her eyes wide as shutters.

"It's the same shape we saw when we were at Ravenscare Manor," Jem said with an impression in his tone. "He has been able to destroy all the automata and finish half the forest"

Will swallowed, remembering that moment very clearly.

"His presence is terrifying when I see him," replied Tessa, her hair standing on end.

"It is," Minato told him. "That's why he's known as the Bearer of Death. You can go back to my mind"

Ryoji nodded and said goodbye to them, as he disappeared into a smoke, letting his scent permeate the medical room.

"Still missing, his presence is still in the air," Will's nose wrinkled.

Minato shrugged in response. To give them a demonstration of his power, Minato activated the trigger of the Evoker, and summoned the figure of Caesar, who surprised them greatly when he saw one of the military leaders and last dictator of the Republic of Rome. Caesar saluted the members of the Institute, and told them that it was an honor to meet the half-angel race that protected the humans in Britannia, an old name for England. After he had dissipated, he summoned Jack Frost, causing them to be even more surprised; one example would be that Will scoffed that he seemed harmless, but when Jack Frost froze his body; he withdrew his word. By the end, Minato summoned one of his Persona who most wanted to meet the nephilims, and granted his wish.

The shadowhunters stunned them. His body was sculpted perfectly, his features were sharp and beautiful; with long blonde curly hair that fell down her shoulders and two antelope horns on her temples. A white ribbon ran all over his splendid body, covering his lower part, and his white wings shone like a divine light. Helel, the Persona of the Star Arcana, and also one of the names given to Lucifer in the Old Testament.

"It's an honor to meet you, nephilim," Helel replied in a polite and noble tone, whose voice was melodic and soft.

The shadowhunters had stunned faces; The original angelic form of the fallen angel of God was fascinating and magnificent.

"You ..." Charlotte's voice choked, but she finished it again. "What angel are you?"

Helel laughed out loud, making the neophyims of the Institute in London feel uncomfortable.

"I've had so many names among humans, and you who specialize in hunting demons know who I really am"

"A moment" Jem sat up startled. "Your you are..."

"Yes" his smile formed at their corners. "My name is Helel, the Morning Star, and the first angel to be revealed against God"

The medical room was plunged into a deep silence. The faces of the nephilims were of shock and amazement. They had seen the invocations that Minato had made, but it was the first time they had seen with their own eyes the first archangel who made the rebellion in the Kingdom of Heaven.

"By the Angel," Henry mused weakly.

"Praising the name of my brothers as creator and god would be an offense to my father," Helel commented, causing the shadowhunters and Tessa to feel tense. "But that does not matter, you fulfill your mission of maintaining balance with the supernatural world, which would not affect you"

Everyone swallowed at the same time, making Helel laugh.

"Helel," Jem murmured, thinking about that word. "Helel is one of the names in the jewish scriptures that you ascribe to the star and the dawn"

"Correctly"

"But, does that mean that Lucifer is also your name, right?" Tessa asked, getting curious.

"In short, yes," he replied. "Besides that name my other half has it"

"Another half? Does it refer to a Persona identical to you?"

"Of course," Helel clarified. "My other half, Lucifer, is a demonic form that I had when I was expelled from Heaven, a different appearance to my angelic form when I lived there"

"That also includes Satan, right?" Sophie pointed.

"No," he said, making everyone look at him confused. "In the texts they talk about my fall to Hell, and that I changed my name to Satan, but there are always mistakes in the words of the writings"

"But it does not make sense" Will crossed his arms. "We know that Satan is one of many names that you were put when you descended into Hell and became an Infernal Prince"

"It is a grave error that many historians have confirmed, but the information that is said is false. Satan is a demon that represents the manifestation of all evils on earth, like other demons, he and I are polar opposites"

That information stunned the shadowhunters.

"It's impossible." Henry ran a hand over his chin, thinking about what he had heard. "In the Book of Job it is said that Satan is a lord of Hell who is powerful, but we have been instructed in the Academy of Shadowhunters about the history of demons and other supernatural beings, even so ... I find it confusing. Surely it's not your other half? "

"As I said: he and I are polar opposites," Helel said quietly. "All you have heard about me and my names are nothing but alterations in history under the pretext of creating a new enemy against order"

"It's like Ryoji said on the train back to London," Will explained, remembering the words of Thanatos's human form. "The ancient race of nephilims had been erased along with the rest of fantasy beings by God during the Flood"

"Indeed," Helel said.

"It can not be possible" Henry massaged his temples, "I thought that the existence of the nephilims in the Old Testament was a mistake, but now everything seems to be true" he sighed wearily.

"But you're a Persona anyway, right?" Sophie replied, after being quiet for the rest of the conversation. "As the young Minato said; a manifestation of his psyche that takes on the appearance of the original"

"That's right, and being the copy, I have the memories and memories of the original, just like all the Persona in Master Minato's mind"

"Meaning also the copy of Satan," said Will.

"Very successful, Will Herondale," Helel told him, causing the Welsh Shadowhunter to startle. He turned his eyes towards his summoner. "Take it, to give them a good impression" he replied with a sardonic smile, and disappeared into a smoke.

With the Evoker in his temple, the crystal broke, and the fragments rose up like a whirlpool with the dark blue smoke, until it took the form of the Persona of the Judgment Arcana. His appearance caused a great impact on others, making them pale with fear. The appearance of the creature was insectoid. His body was dark blue, with six bat wings that had the same color as his body. He had two arms; using the two as legs to stand and a long tail with two vertebral columns that were also like tails that were stuck behind his back. Its crest was long, with great hedgehog tips on both sides of its elongated crest, and a terrifying face with a square jaw with teeth like leaves and eyes that flashed pure evil.

"I am Satan, the one under God, the judge!" he cried with a loud and shrill voice, like a lightning bolt and thunder in a storm. "I can finally see the children of Raziel with my own eyes!"

Everyone tensed when the biblical demon called them, using the name of their creator.

"And-and for us i-is a ho-honor to meet you ... sir" Charlotte hesitated with fear. I knew it was not the original, but their mere presence made them have the creeps and increase the fear in their hearts, like the rest of the others. She had been educated that the Infernal Princes had once been angels of Heaven, to then be rulers of their respective demonic world, and one of the most powerful was Asmodeus and Satan himself; a name given to Lucifer during his fall from grace, but knowing the truth behind the lie, now he had an open mind.

"I can smell the fear that comes from your voice, Charlotte Branwell." Satan laughed darkly, making the director of the Institute uneasy. "Like all of you, nephilims" his amber eyes rested on Tessa. "I see that finally see the halfblood in front of me, is not it, Tessa Gray?" the girl moved uncomfortably, standing next to Jem. The demon laughed out loud. "It seems that you are still clinging to one of your loves"

Tessa blushed like a tomato, like Jem did, while Will stifled a sigh.

"Young people and their love problems" he laughed evilly. "But that does not matter to me at all, the only thing that interests me if you have mastered your demonic powers, have you done well, girl?"

"O-Of course I did ..." Tessa stuttered at him. "It was the fairy Titania and the goddess Circe who taught me how to use it"

"Trained by Titania herself and Circe!" he answered loudly, rumbling the entire medical room and making the nephilims afraid. "You have demon blood, which runs through your veins, like the blood of Raziel, but the spells of the fairies and those of an olympian goddess are ancient and powerful.

"Thank you ... sir" said the poor girl with fear in her voice.

"I can ask you a question ... lord Satan," Henry replied, loving himself with courage.

"Speak now, nephilim"

"If you are the copy of the original that is residing in Hell, does that mean that neither you nor Lucifer are the same individual?"

"Of course not, nephilim," he growled like a bull. "I represent the temptation of the human being, and i also serve as the judge of God among the souls of the condemned. I associate with evil and anger, while Lucifer is an angel that fell from Heaven and founded his own faction. We are different beings that often associate us as one, but we are not"

"Thanks for the explanation," Henry said stutteringly.

"Any more questions, is there enough time?" He looked at Will. "Are you sure you do not want to know anything about my parsnips from my garden, nephilim?"

Will swallowed in horror and shook his head. Satan laughed aloud.

"I thought you were going to say a sarcastic comment, but I see that the fear of seeing you overpowered you completely, it was an honor to meet you, nephilim" the Lord of Hell disappeared into the smoke.

After a prolonged awkward silence, Henry, who had doubts, spoke:

"I still do not understand"

"What do you not understand, Henry?" Charlotte told her husband.

"If what we saw was just a manifestation of Minato's psyche, then why was there no intervention during the Dark Hour phenomenon in Japan?"

Everyone was nodded, and their eyes were directed towards Minato. He groaned, and proceeded to tell her the other truth he had saved when he arrived in Victorian England. When he finished telling them, the members of the Institute remained like inanimate dolls, with their eyes open like doors and their brains were trying to process the information that Minato explained to them, only so that they were even more confused and out of place.

"Then" Charlotte, who was massaging her temples because of the increasing headache, spoke first: "You are a native of another universe parallel to ours, and then you were sent a few years in the past to stop Mortmain in case he I could access that information about this multiverse that we make up, right?"

Minato nodded.

Charlotte let out a weary and weary sigh.

"With the explanation of your history that you gave us, I think that is enough of revelations for now"

"A world parallel to ours!" Henry exclaimed. "Charlotte, it's the greatest discovery we've had in front of us! You can imagine it! We're talking about an Earth where shadow hunters have never existed before!"

"You do not need to get exasperated, Henry," Will replied. "Now everything fits perfectly in this puzzle, and in your universe there are no demonic invasions?"

"No" Minato denied, shook his head, "only Shadows and Persona, but no threat of demons"

"If there are no demons in your universe," Sophie replied. "Does that mean there's also a risk of Shadows threats?"

"There is risk, but they are solved by another generation of user-Persona, there is no need to worry" said Minato, remembering the mention of his successors: the Research Team and the Phantom Thieves.

"A vast sea of infinite universes parallel to ours" Jem thought about the explanation that Minato had said. "Minato, do you happen to think it exists...?"

"God" he finished him. "In my universe there is christianity and other religions. I was never aware of the existence of God when I joined SEES. God or YHVH who is called by his name in the bible, is a part of the Great Will that fulfills the work as a marshal who supervises each universe"

"The Great Will" repeated Jem. "In the studies of mundane science it was believed that the universe had been created by an explosion that had occurred several millennia ago in the past, while in the scriptures of the bible it is said that God created the universe when there was nothing. we are also taught in the Academy about that as an informative part"

"It's true," replied Henry. "But I have a doubt, if we are part of the many universes created by the Great Will, do not all the universes have problems with demonic invasions from other worlds?"

Minato shrugged in response.

"I really do not know, but I can be sure that each universe we make up has its own group that can fight against demons, perhaps with modern high-tech items, one example would be SEES, that we have used our Evoker and Aigis as weapons against the Shadows"

"Well" Will put his hands around the back of his neck, "it seems that the mundanes of the different universes have everything solved with their technological advances, and while we get used to the old method"

"Does that mean that the Void is also part of this great multiverse?" Charlotte added curiously.

"No. The Void or mostly known in various cultures as the Makai or Atziluth has existed since the creation of the multiverse of the Great Will. The Makai or the Void is the home where the demons were created based on thoughts in different universes, which is part of this vast multiverse as a single for the incursions among the various" He shrugged, "it is possible that they were attracted by the emotions and thoughts of each human mind to satiate their man , or simply want to adapt to new environments"

"And that's why Jonathan invoked the angel Raziel to keep the world safe from them," said Tessa. "After having seen the raids of the demons from the Makai, he decided to become the first shadowhunter and fight the threat"

"Our work as the secret protectors of humanity has always been held firm for generations," Jem spoke firmly. "We will do everything necessary to protect humans and the World of Shadows from any threat"

"Exactly." Will smiled proudly. "We have faced worse things in our lives, Mortmain is one of them, deserves to be brought before the justice of the Clave"

Everyone agreed to Will's statement. Mortmain was a man who had a grudge and a thirst for immense revenge towards shadowhunters; his drive to bring justice to the murderers of his parents had led him to create his father's automatons as killing machines. Not to mention that he used a powerful demon to change shape to pretend to be Tessa's father and impregnate his seed in the mother, without realizing that she was a shadowhunter without knowing it, and then there was his daughter, Tessa, a mestizo between the two enemy races; a being that would be used by Mortmain himself in his plans to create a new hybrid race.

Mortmain must be stopped at all costs.

"We'd better rest a little," Charlotte commented with a yawn, while massaging her temples. "So much information made us confused and tired"

They all agreed and went to their rooms.

* * *

When everyone was in their respective rooms, Tessa decided to start a conversation with the maid, near the door of her room. This conversation was something that Tessa had had when she went to Benedict Lightwood's party.

"Sophie, I saw you with Gideon the other day"

Instantly, it tensed completely.

"What do you mean, miss?"

"I went back to find my pendant," she explained. "My mechanical angel, and I saw you in the hallway with Gideon." He swallowed hard. "He ... held your hand ... like a suitor"

It made a long silence.

"Are you going to tell Mrs. Branwell?"

"What, Spohie, no, I just wanted to ... warn you ..."

"Warn me what?" Sophie asked in a neutral voice.

"The Ligthwood ..." She swallowed. "They are not very nice people, when I was at their house ... with Will and Minato ... I saw terrible things ... terrible"

"It's mr. Ligthwood, not his children!" The abruptness in the maid's voice made her cringe. "They are not like him!"

"What difference can there be?"

Sophie stared at her with eyes full of anguish.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to let a three-room gentleman make fun of me after what I've been through? After all that mrs. Branwell has taught me, Gideon is a good man..."

"It's a matter of education, Sophie, can you imagine going to Benedict Lightwood and telling him that he wants to marry a worldly woman and, besides, a maid?"

Sophie wrinkled her face.

"You do not know anything," he replied. "He does not know what he wanted for us ..."

"You mean the training?" Tessa could not believe it. "Sophie, the truth ..."

But she, shaking her head, had taken her skirts, and left her alone behind the door.

Tessa watched as the maid disappeared into the corridor, while she curses herself internally for her idiocy.

* * *

While in the Velvet Room, Igor explained to Minato his performance during the course of his trip. He had explained that his interaction with the members of the Institute in London had strengthened his Social Links. He also explained that the relationship between Tessa, Will and Jem was increasingly tense; since the love of the girl who feels for the two nephilim causes a feeling of confusion and guilt, something normal among the loving adolescents.

After knowing about his performance, and spending some intimate time with Elizabeth, Minato had returned to his room. He heard Jem's voice telling him to wake up and shuffle into the living room, where Charlotte was calling. He got out of bed, changed his nightgown, and went to the meeting.

When he arrived, he saw that everyone was in their own place: Sophie was in charge of a blazing fire in the fireplace in the living room. Charlotte was sitting behind the desk, Henry was at her side. Will was lying in one of the armchairs next to the hearth, with a tea service on the side and a cup in his hand. Tessa was sitting on the couch next to the desk next to Jem. He sat on a sofa that was next to them. Minato could see that Tessa felt tense next to Jem, her second love. But there was something more than a simple tension between the two. Something he did not know, but his Persona from the Priestess Arcana, Parvati, who was more than just a love affair.

 _'It's something else,'_ Shiva's second consort had explained to her through childish laughter, just as they did in the Arcane of Love.

"Then, since we are all" began the director of the Institute in an animated tone. "As you probably know, Wayland Consul had given us a full period of time to find Mortmain's whereabouts. We have compiled information in various places to learn about his past and the motivation for his revenge, and Brother Enoch has warned us that Nathaniel Gray presents the same spell that Jessamine had when we interrogated her with the Mortal Sword, but we all know where Mortmain is." Minato, Will, Jem and Tessa nodded. She continued: "Now we also have another piece of news: the werewolf that Minato saved the previous night, it was discovered that he and the others had taken the automata in cover to where the meeting of the Clave was going to take place"

That caused a great impact on Will and Jem.

"It was for me, Jem," Charlotte told him, calming him down. "According to the information in detail he says that the order was to be taken to Westminster Abbey, where the meeting is held in the Pyx Chamber, he said it was a nephilim who gave him the information on where to take them"

"Benedict Lightwood," Will spoke with venom and bitterness in his voice.

"Our suspicions about him became so clear when you and Tessa went to his mansion on the night of the dance"

"The most reasonable thing would be that we take Benedict Lightwood to the Clave and interrogate him with the Mortal Sword"

"When we tested the Mortal Sword with Jessamine, we discovered that it had locks set by Mortmain," Charlotte observed worriedly. "Do you think Mortmain would be foolish enough not to take the same precaution with Benedict? It would be a risk for us"

Will ran his hands through his dark hair.

"Mortmain expects us to go to the Clave," he began. "It would be his first guess, he is also accustomed to leaving his luck to partners who no longer serve him. De Quincey, for example. Lightwood is not irreplaceable to him either, and he knows it." He drummed his knees. "I think that if we went to the Clave, we would undoubtedly get Benedict to be in defeat, but there is a segment of the Clave that follows it, we know some of them, but not others, it's sad, but we do not know who we can trust. Beyond us, if Minato had not intervened in our lives, the Institute would be in danger, and Tessa would not be safe"

She blinked.

"I?"

Will seemed to have stopped, as if surprised by what he had just said.

"Well, you are an integral part of Mortmain's plans, he has always loved you, he has always needed you, we must not let him have you, it is evident that, in his hands, you would be a very powerful weapon"

"All that is true, Will, and of course I'll go see the Consul," agreed Charlotte. "As director it is my responsibility to protect the Institute and the residents from any threat"

Everyone was happy because of Charlotte's firmness in not surrendering.

"It's good to know that you continued forward without giving up," Jem told him altruistically.

"It was your's who gave me strength to continue being the director of the Institute, I thank you very much"

"Mrs. Branwell." Sophie decided to start a conversation with a little hesitation. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes," she said. "you can say it"

The maid felt insecure and restless, but decided to arm herself with courage.

"There's something else she needs to know about Mr. Benedict Lightwood," he swallowed, but continued, "I've been with Gideon Lightwood, I've been seeing him on my days off." She was pale as a ghost. "He told me that Mortmain has something mr. Lightwood wants, and Gideon has just discovered that his father does not know what he knows"

"Well, holy God, girl, do not stay there," complained Henry, who looked perplexed as his wife. "Tell us"

"Demonic pox," the maid replied. "The mr. Lightwood has had it for years and will kill him in a couple of months if he does not get the cure, and Mortmain says he can get it."

A great commotion erupted in the room. Minato's Persona laughed loudly in his mind. Charlotte ran to Sophie; Henry called her; Will jumped out of the chair and started dancing in circles. Minato remained calm, while Tessa stayed where she was, dazed, and Jem stayed by her side. Meanwhile, Will seemed to be singing a song about how he had been right about demonic pox since the beginning.

 _Demonic pox, oh, demonic pox,_

 _And how do you get that mess?_

 _Go to the bad side of the city._

 _Until very tired._

 _Demonic pox, oh, demonic pox,_

 _I had it from the beginning ..._

 _There is no smallpox, fools, no_

 _But as I say in this song._

 _Everything, all reason_

 _And not all of you!_

"WILL!" Charlotte screamed at the noise. "HAVE YOU LOST THE JUDGMENT ?! STOP WITH THAT INFERNAL SCANDAL!"

Jem, rising to his feet, covered Will's mouth with his hand.

"Do you promise to shut up?" His friend hissed in his ear.

Will nodded, eyes bright. His friend released him.

"Well then"

Will dropped to the floor, leaned back against the chair and raised his arms.

"Put the demon pox in your house!" he announced, and yawned.

"Oh, no, weeks of jokes about smallpox," Jem complained. "The one that is going to fall on us!"

"It can not be true," Charlotte was amazed. "It's just ... Demonic pox?"

"And how do we know that Gideon did not lie to Sophie?" Jem asked, his tone soft. "I'm sorry, Sophie, I hate to say it, but you can not trust the Ligthwood"

"I've seen Gideon's face when he looks at Sophie," Will interjected. "It was Tessa who told me first that she liked our Miss Collins, and I thought about it and I realized that it was true, and a man in love ... a man in love will say anything, betray anyone." Looking at Tessa as she spoke. Minato saw that Tessa was staring at him; He had feelings for Will, he knew it very well, but Tessa was in a new relationship with Jem. Parvati had told him there was something else, and that had to do with the fact that the two had declared their love for each other. Tessa was in love with Will, but now she loves Jem.

The love triangles are complicated and anguishing among lovers.

"Besides, Benedict had a demon woman in his lap at the party, and he was kissing her," he continued, turning his gaze from Tessa. "I had snakes in my eyes, everyone with their tastes, I imagine ... Anyway, the only way you can get the demonic pox is by having improper relations with a demon, so ..."

"Nate told me that mr. Lightwood preferred demon women," Tessa recalled. "I do not think his wife ever found out about that"

"Lilith," Minato commented, earning everyone's eyes.

"What did you say?" Henry told him, confused.

"The demon woman with whom Benedict kissed, was Lilith"

The faces of the residents of the Institute darkened with surprise.

"Lilith," Will repeated, stuttering. "By angel! Benedict has been having intimate relations with the very Lilith, the first wife of Adam and Infernal Princess of Edom!" He laughed like crazy, making everyone feel uncomfortable.

"Will, shut up!" Jem replied in a loud voice, making his friend stop laughing, but let out a few small giggles. "At least you could tell us what are the symptoms of demonic pox"

"Pretty unpleasant," Will replied, enjoying himself. "It begins with a shield-shaped rash on the back, and it spreads throughout the body, forming a crack and fissures in the skin ..."

Jem gasped.

"Now I'm back," he said. "Just a moment, for the Angel ..."

And he disappeared through the door, leaving the others staring at him,

"You do not think he has demon pox, right?" Henry asked no one in particular.

Minato shrugged. He thought that Jem had gone to look for information on possible demon pox.

"Oh, shut your mouth, Henry," Will snapped, and it looked like he was about to say something else, but the door flew open and Jem came back into the room, panting and holding a piece of parchment.

"The Silent Brothers gave me this when I decided to look up information about the death of the Ligthwood brothers' mother, it's Barbara Ligthwood's report. After Charlotte told us that her father never gave Silas to the Clave, I thought about asking the Silent Brothers how mrs. Lightwood had died To see if Benedict also lied when he said he had died of grief"

"And he was lying?" Tessa leaned forward, fascinated.

"Yes, the truth is that he cut his wrists, but there is more." He looked at the paper in his hands. "A shield-shaped rash, indicative of the characteristic marks of astriola, on the left shoulder," he read.

He handed it to Will, who took it and read it, opening his eyes in amazement.

"Astriola!" he let go. "That's demonic pox, I had proof that demon pox exists and you did not tell me! Et tu, brute" He rolled the paper and gave Jem on the head with him.

"Oh!" The boy rubbed his head, embarrassed. "Those words did not mean anything to me! I assumed it was some minor illness." It does not seem that that was what killed her. "He cut his wrists, but if Benedict wanted to protect his children, hiding that his mother had taken the lifetime..."

"By the Angel," Charlotte exclaimed in a low voice. "No wonder she killed herself because her husband had suffered from pox, and she knew it." He turned suddenly to Sophie, who gave a little cry. "Does Gideon know this?"

Sophie shook her head, her eyes wide.

"No"

"But would not the Silent Brothers be obliged to inform someone that they had discovered this?" Henry asked. "It seems, well, at least, irresponsible"

"Of course they would inform someone, they would tell their husband, and they certainly did, but what, surely Benedict already knew," Will ventured. "There was no need to tell the children, the rash appears at the beginning of contracting the disease, so they would be too old for her to have passed on to them." Without doubt, the Silent Brothers told Benedict, and he He said: "Horror," and quickly wrote the whole thing, "You can not judge the dead because of improper relations with demons, so they burned the body, and that's it"

"And how is it that Benedict is still alive?" Tessa asked. "Should not the disease have already killed him?"

"Mortmain," Sophie replied. "All this time he has been giving him drugs that make the disease progress more slowly"

"Does it slow down, but does it stop?" Minato wanted to know.

"No, he's still dying, and now more quickly," Sophie replied. That's why he's so desperate, and he'll do whatever Mortmain wants"

"Demonic pox!" Will whispered, and looked at Charlotte. Despite his obvious excitement, there was a light flickering behind his blue eyes. A light of acute intelligence, as if he were a chess player reflecting on the next play in search of possible advantages and disadvantages. "We should get in with Benedict immediately," Will proposed. "We have all the evidence in our favor, and we just need to put Benedict Ligthwood in his place"

"Benedict is stubborn ..." Charlotte began.

"Not as much as proud," replied Jem. "Benedict has always wanted to control the Institute, but he also wants to humiliate you, Charlotte, prove that a woman can not run the Institute, Will is right, put Benedict in his place as the traitor he is"

"To what end?" Henry asked. "Send Charlotte to Benedict, what does it provide us, exactly?"

"Justice," Will answered, his eyes burning with excitement. "We know where Mortmain is hiding, but Benedict is a wild dog that needs to be tamed and then taken to the kennel"

"But I'm almost certain that he is more afraid of Mortmain than we are," Tessa said hesitantly, "and he certainly needs what he gives him otherwise he will die"

"Yes, he will die, but what he has done, having improper relations with a demon, infecting his wife and causing his death, is like having killed another shadowhunter on purpose." Not only can it be considered murder, but also murder with demonic means That will demand the worst punishment"

"What is worse than death?" Tessa and Minato wanted to know, and immediately regretted having asked, because he saw Jem tense his mouth imperceptibly.

"The Silent Brothers will extract what makes it a nephilim, it will be Abandoned," Will answered. "Their children will be worldly, and the marks will be taken away from them The name of Ligthwood will be crossed out from the lists of the shadowhunters It will be the end of the Ligthwood among the Nephilim There is no worse shame It is a punishment that even Benedict will fear"

"And besides," Jem added. "We have Minato Arisato with his power of Persona, since he has saved us from trouble several times"

Everyone looked at him, who remained where he was, quiet, reserved and polite. With the dark blue hair tousled that covered half of the left side and left to the right blue eye that combined with his hair color. For the rest of the week, Minato had helped them with his power from his universe. It was he who prevented the Institute from being in danger and was dominated by Benedict Lightwood. It was he who helped them get complete information about Mortmain's revenge goal and Tessa Gray's secret. It was thanks to him that they could see for the first time an angel that was trapped in the girl's pendant. Everything had been fun to him. The Messiah.

"Then everything is clear, we will visit Benedict," Charlotte spoke firmly, whose expression was hardened, a feature identical to Mitsuru Kirijo when there were situations of greater tension than Minato had remembered. "There is no time to send a proper notice ahead, it will have to be something of a surprise ... Well, where are the business cards?"

Will sat up.

"So you've decided to follow my plan?"

"Now it's my plan," Charlotte replied firmly. "You can come with me, Will, but you will follow my instructions, and we will not talk about the demonic pox until I say so"

"But ... but ..." the boy mumbled.

"Oh, leave it," Jem interjected, giving him a loving little kick on his friend's knee.

"He has appropriated my plan!"

His attitude was a copy identical to the antics that Junpei always did, a memory that Minato would have in mind.

"Will," Tessa began firmly, "what does it matter to you more, that the plan be put into practice or that the initiative be recognized?"

He pointed at her with one finger.

"That," he replied. "The second"

Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"William, this will be done as I decide or it will not be done"

Will took a deep breath and looked at Jem, who smiled at him; Will let the air out of his lungs with a sigh of defeat.

"All right, Charlotte, do you want all of us to go?"

"You, Tessa and Minato, no doubt, we need you as witnesses to the party, Jem, Henry, it is not necessary that you come, and it is necessary that at least one of you remain to watch over the Institute"

"Honey ..." Henry touched Charlotte's arm with a questioning look.

"Yes?" His wife looked at him in surprise.

"Are you sure you do not want me to go with you?"

Charlotte smiled at him, which transformed his tense and tired face.

"Very sure, Henry, technically, Jem is not an adult, and leaving him alone here, and I do not want to say he is not capable, would only add fuel to the fire of Benedict's complaints, but thank you very much"

Minato understood that Henry cared very much for the welfare of his wife and the baby; an attitude that any husband would be attentive in lending his help to his fiancee. Speaking of fiancees. He observed that Jem squeezed Tessa's hand, affectionately and softly, a moving gesture among lovers. Charlotte picked up a pen to write a note for Benedict on the left side of the business card, which Cyril would hand him while they waited in the carriage.

With the meeting over, Minato and the others went to their rooms to get dressed. When he was about to open the door, he heard Will calling back to Tessa; maybe he was calling her to tell her about his love or something like that. He was not interested in hearing other people's problems; he opened the door and entered it.

* * *

Tessa had only taken a few steps in her room when she stood in surprise, contemplating what lay on her bed: an elegant indian silk stripe suit with cream and gray stripes, adorned with delicate braided cord and silver buttons. Gray gloves were on the side, with a pattern of leaves on a silver thread. There were bone-colored button boots at the foot of the bed, and elegant patterned stockings.

The door opened and Sophie entered, holding a pale gray hat trimmed with silvery wild berries. She was very pale, and her eyes were swollen and red. He avoided Tessa's gaze.

"New clothes, miss," she said. "The fabric was part of mrs. Branwell's trousseau, and well, weeks ago she thought about making a dress for you, I think she thought you should have clothes that miss Jessamine did not buy for you, she thought she would feel more ... Comfortable, and they brought it this morning, I asked Bridget to prepare it for you.

Tessa noticed the tears in her eyes, and sat quickly on the edge of the bed.

"Sophie" spoke in a trembling voice. "I should ..., no, I want to apologize"

"Apologize to me?" the maid asked in a neutral voice, as she left her hat on the table. Tessa looked at her. Charlotte always wore a very simple clothes. I never would have thought that the director had an inclination for beautiful things, or the taste to choose them.

"I was completely mistaken in telling you about Gideon as i did," she continued. "I put my nose where it should not, and you're absolutely right, Sophie, you can not judge a man for the sins of his family, and i should have told you that although I saw Gideon at the ball the other night, it did not seem i am taking part in the amusements, in fact. I can not see inside your mind to know what you think, and I should not have behaved as if i could. I have no experience other than you, Sophie, and when it comes to gentlemen, I am clearly misinformed i apologize for behaving with superiority, I will not do it again, if you can forgive me "

Sophie went to the closet and opened it to show her a second dress; this one was dark blue adorned with a braided cord of golden velvet, and a skirt to the polonaise with the opening to the right, which left to see pale ruffles of cloth of faya.

"How nice!" Sophie exclaimed in a slightly dreamy tone, and brushed it with her hand. "It's been ... it's been a very nice apology, miss, and I forgive her, I know you were very concerned about me about my relationship with Gideon, and I know I was doing it to protect myself, that's why I accept your apology"

"Thank you, Sophie, thank you for accepting it." Tessa smiled. "What you've done has been very brave, about telling Charlotte the truth, I know you were afraid she would get angry"

The maid smiled sadly.

"She's not angry, she's disappointed, I know, she told me that she could not talk to me now, but that she would do it later, and I saw it in her face, in a way, it's worse"

"Oh, Sophie, but she's disappointed with Will at all hours!"

"Well, who does not?"

"I was not referring to that, I mean you appreciate it, like you're Will or Jem, or well, you know, even if you're disappointed, you do not have to be afraid that I'm going to kick you out. And I believe it too"

"Miss Tessa!" Sophie protested, opening her eyes.

"Beuno, it's the truth," retorted Tessa, a rebel. "You're brave, generous and charming, like Charlotte ..."

Sophie's tears stung. She wiped them quickly with the tip of her apron.

"Okay, enough of that" he cut in a hurry, still blinking. "I have to dress you up, and get ready, because Cyril already comes with the carriage, and you know that mrs. Branwell does not like to waste time"

Tessa approached obediently, and with the help of the maid she put on the white and gray striped dress.

"And be careful, that's all I have to say," Sophie concluded, deftly handling the button hook. "The father is a bad piece, do not forget, he's very hard on those guys"

'Those kids' By the way he said it, it seemed that Sophie also felt sorry for Gabriel, as well as Gideon. Tessa wondered what he would think of his little brother, and his sister too. But he did not ask anything while Sophie brushed and curled her hair, and moistened her temples with lavender water.

"Well, it's lovely, miss," Sophie observed proudly when she finished, and Tessa had to admit that the girl had done very well choosing the cut and the color that suited her best. The gray, in fact, fit him very well: his eyes looked bigger and blueder; the waist and the arms, more slender; the bust, fuller. "One last thing ..."

"What is it, Sophie?"

"Young Jem," he replied, and Tessa was surprised. "Please, whatever you do, miss ..." She looked at the chain with the jade pendant hidden by the dress, and bit his lip. "Do not break your heart"

* * *

Minato saw that Cyril was leading them not to the Chiswick manor house but to an elegant inn in Pimlico, which was apparently the daily residence of the Lightwoods. It had begun to rain, and the wet clothes-gloves, hats, and coats-were taken by a flippant footman before accompanying them through many gleaming corridors to a large library, where an energetic fire burned in a large fireplace.

Behind a huge oak desk sat Benedict Lightwood, with its sharp profile, accentuated by the play of light and shadow inside the room. The curtains were drawn over the windows, and the walls, covered with heavy volumes bound in dark leather, with gold lettering on the spine. He was flanked by his children: Gideon on the right, with blond hair pulled forward to hide his expression, and arms crossed over his broad chest; Gabriel left, and his green eyes were illuminated by a bewilderment when he saw Minato among them.

"Charlotte," Benedict greeted. "Will. Miss Gray. Ah! Minato Arisato, the warlock who has the magical power of summoning an ancient hero and the very Metatron, who freed the Ithuriel angel from his confinement. to sit on the chairs before the desk. Gabriel frowned at Will as he took a seat. Will looked at him, mimicking Minato's neutral face, and then looked away.

Will had not released any sarcastic comments, but Minato knew that Will would soon explode later.

"Thank you very much, Benedict." Charlotte, petite, with her spine very straight, spoke with perfect aplomb. "For receiving us without us having notified"

"Naturally," he smiled, but looking at it in more detail, it was not a natural smile, it was tense. "I can assume they succeeded in finding Mortmain, right?"

"Without a doubt, Benedict, it was an exhausting and long investigation, but we were able to find it, thanks to the residents of the Institute, and also to Minato"

"Of course" Benedict struggled to maintain his natural smile without tensing more. "After all, the angel Ithuriel called him Messiah, and he did his work in helping them"

"Indeed," Charlotte replied firmly, without lowering her guard. "But there's something else I wanted to talk to you about"

He swallowed; his neck was sweating.

"And what would it be, Charlotte?"

"We know you had a party at your mansion, Benedict, and you invited downworlders and demons as your guests at night." Will, Tessa and Minato were there in Chiswick.

There was a slight silence. Benedict did not move a muscle. Gabriel and his brother either.

Before Benedict could reply, Will was answered first.

"That demon woman you were lying on the couch with," he began. "Would you say it was a friend or rather a business colleague?"

Benedict's eyes hardened, but he said nothing.

"Oh, I'd say I was a friend," Tessa continued. "Normally, you would not let your business colleagues lick your face, although I could be wrong, what do I know about those things, I'm just a poor woman?"

"She'll be the one to explain." Minato put his Evoker on his temple. Benedict paled like a ghost, while the broken glass took the form of a naked woman with pale skin with long black hair that fell down her back and a long boa that covered every part of the woman's body, curling around her neck. Both the legs and some parts of his body had purple black scales. His face was beautiful and attractive, with amber eyes that sparkled malice and fun.

"Oh, Benedict, we seem to meet again," Litlith said, her voice silky, soft, and seductive. "Do you deny us together on the night of the party? How bad you are"

Benedict's eyes were narrowed and his jaw trembled. Gabriel was dismayed and speechless, while Gideon looked at the floor, muttering in a low voice.

"What happened, Benedict?" she answered innocently. "Did not I do very well in fulfilling my role to have fun on the couch? After all, your two children were there" Lilith winked at both of them. Gabriel blushed, and Gideon stood his ground without contracting like his brother.

"I ... i ..." began the father of the Ligthwood brothers in search of a logical explanation, but the words did not come out with his stutter and tremor in his voice.

Gabriel looked at his father, bewildered and confused, but Benedict did not look at him.

"Admit it," Charlotte replied in a self-taught voice. "You have not only invited demons and downworlders to your party, but you had an intimate relationship with a Greater Demon, the Infernal Princess Lilith"

"A very flattering title," Lilith said with a laugh.

"Father ..." Gabriel wanted an answer, but he did not answer.

"Come on, Benedict," Will said with a smile at their corners. "We know you've had sex with demons, and you've also been infected with demonic pox"

"What...!" Benedict let go, but Lilith's boa came quickly to his neck. Sharp teeth like leaves were stuck, ready to bite their prey.

"Lift up your sleeve now," Adam's first wife replied in a soft, menacing voice.

Benedict, who was in a panic, decided to carry out his order. A feature of corruption covered his bare arm; It was like his skin was beginning to crack. Gabriel was horrified, while Gideon smiled with triumph.

"It was already that you finally confessed your crime, father," Gabriel's older brother reproached him dryly.

"You" roared. "You told him, you betrayed me"

"Yes," said Gideon, crossing his arms. "And I would do it again"

"Father, is that true?" Gabriel's tone was one of consternation and exigency. His emerald green eyes wanted the truth, but his father remained silent.

Gideon looked at his father with uncertainty and reproach.

"Since you made me come back from Spain, I've been thinking, as a child I assumed that all shadowhunters lived like us, condemning the demons during the day, and fraternizing with them under the cloak of night." Now I know that's not true It's not about how we do things, father, it's about how you do them, you've poured disgrace and filth on the Lightwood surname"

"No need to be melodramatic ..." Benedict began to say after being silent, having the fangs of the boa in his throat.

"Melodramatic?" Gideon's tone turned with contempt. "Father, I am afraid you have left for your greed, you always wanted to take the Institute to Charlotte for your vice of pride, but all your plans fell by the arrival of Minato Arisato. I am telling you now, and will testify against you in the Council. I will hold the Mortal Sword and tell the truth to Consul Wayland"

"Our mother's dream was always to take the Institute on her deathbed ..." Gabriel murmured.

"The death of your mother, Gabriel, was a lie" Lilith's eyes went to Benedict, shining with evil. "Right, Benedict?" The jaw of the boa changed from neck to shoulder, biting it with immense force, making it scream in pain.

"Yes... yes...!" he shouted.

"What really happened to my mother, father?" Gabriel ignored his father's pain cry.

It's ... true!" He said with a gasp, making his second son be surprised. "Your mother committed suicide because she learned that she had been infected by the disease. I had to use Silas's death as a pretext to hide the truth about your mother's death. Silas did not die because Granville Fairchild told the Clave the truth about his falling in love with his parabatai Eloisa Ravenscar, but he killed himself because he knew that it was forbidden to fall in love with a parabatai. Everything had been a lie to cover my reputation "

There was a tense silence in the room. Gabriel had watery eyes, while his brother went to him and comforted him. The eyes of Charlotte, Will and Tessa were of contempt and annoyance. Minato told Lilith to tighten the bite more, which she accepted sadistically. Benedict howled loudly, echoing throughout the room.

"For ... please ... make it ... stop!" he moaned. "I will do anything"

"Whatever," Charlotte repeated with disgust. "If you are going to cooperate with us, I want you to explain in detail: did you tell Mortmain where the Council meets?"

"Yes ..." he answered with a choked cry. "I ... told him where ... we met"

Everyone looked at him with hatred.

"Benedict" Charlotte's voice was steel. "You're not just a liar, you're a traitor, you lied about killing your wife and you blamed my father for something he never did, you had illicit relationships with demons and you gave our enemy information about where the council meetings are. , besides that there are automatons ready to attack all shadowhunters, you are really, a despicable being. "His tone was deadly. "You do not deserve to wear the marks, nor the blood of Raziel that runs through your veins"

Minato looked at Lilith.

"What are the final consequences of demonic pox?"

"The final consequences would be the worst" Lilith laughed between laughter, making Benedict pale. "After being completely infected, the individual will succumb to a period of tensions such as fever, chills, nausea, suppurating sores, not suppurating sores, buboes, a black spot over the eyes, hair removal, skin discoloration, swelling, inter other symptoms. The pox would then worsen and the victim would fall into sores and fissures will eventually cover the victim's skin completely, forming a dark chrysalis within which the victim becomes a demon. After several weeks of supposedly painful transformation, the demon will emerge from the chrysalis"

Benedict's jaw snapped open, and his heart began to beat rapidly.

"Please...!" implored with anguish. "Mercy ... please ... Cover me ... please! I beg of you!"

Lilith stroked the neck of the boa. His face showed indifference.

"I do not see the logic in healing you, Benedict. Charlotte said that you do not deserve to take the blood of one of YHVH's angels. "In addition," his face turned macabre. "I always wanted to know how demons would work with nephilim blood worms. Goodbye "She said goodbye while disappearing in a smoke.

Benedict grabbed left, where the bite of the boa was deep and covered in blood. I kept moaning in pain. He looked with imploring at Minato.

"Please ... Messiah ... please"

Minato's expression was stoic. He looked at him indifference.

"Assume the consequences of your apt," he said coldly.

"But..."

"You already heard it, Benedict." Charlotte rose from her seat, as did Minato, Will and Tessa. "Your own pride and vanity led you to how you are now, I suggest that you heal the wound, you can not get to the Council meeting like this"

Bebedict looked at his eldest son for help.

"Gideon ..."

His eldest son walked towards them, then raised his hands before him, almost as if he were going to pray. But shadowhunters did not pray; and instantly Minato realized what he was doing: he was removing the silver ring from his finger. The ring was similar to Jem's Carstairs ring, only it had a flame pattern around the gold. The Lightwood ring. He left it on the edge of his father's desk and turned to his brother.

"Gabirel," he snapped. "Will you come with me?"

He was undecided if it was necessary to go to where his older brother was, but he ran the risk of further tarnishing his last name if he left the mansion. The rumors that the two sons of Benedict Lightwood would be by word of mouth; making more than his reputations decayed more, especially since he was tainted when his distorted the truth of the death of his mother and uncle.

"I ... i can not decide ..."

"Gabriel" his older brother spoke to him in a calm tone. "It's not worth staying with him" he made a reproachful gesture towards his father. " He lied, he lied to both of us.

"And who will take care of him when he presents the symptoms of the disease? What will people say when he realizes that our father contracted a demonic disease, while his two children abandoned him to their fate?" said with despair. "I must stay so that father does not hurt an innocent person when he becomes a demon, if this is a divine sign for me to drag myself towards my pride, then I accept it, I accept this responsibility"

"Gabriel" Giedon looked at his brother with supplication, and then understood his younger brother's decision. If they left their father alone in the mansion, soon smallpox would accelerate rapidly, then metamorphose into a demon and attack any living being in sight. Benedict had committed several sins that did not need to be forgiven, and becoming a demon would be his punishment.

He nodded, agreeing to his choice.

Charlotte walked to the door, together with her three companions, along with Gideon behind them. She turned her gaze to the dying, and defeated, Benedict Lightwood.

"I trusted to see you in the Council chamber tomorrow, Benedict, I trust you know what you have to do," she said in a firm and icy voice, and left the room, along with his companions.

* * *

 **Later in making some modifications that were in the pages of the second book of Infernal Devices.**

 **In this chapter I put everything: the mention of the Great Will, that the universe of shadowhunters was part of the Amala Multiverse, God as the marshal of the Great Will, and I also placed Caesar, and also Helel, Satan and Lilith, since I was anxious to put them.**

 **In this chapter I thought to let Benedict live, but the plot where he becomes a demon in the third book would be interesting to put in this story.**

 **I want to thank you all for continuing to leave constructive criticisms about the plot of the story.**

 **See you in the next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Many thanks to the readers for leaving their critiques and reviews of this chapter!**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

 **The Persona saga belongs to Atlus and the Infernal Devices trilogy belongs to Cassandra Clare.**

* * *

They returned to the Institute in silence, with the rain hitting the carriage windows. Charlotte tried several times to talk to Gideon, but he remained silent, looking at the pawned streets as he passed. Minato understood that he was like that; for one it is hard to believe that his own father was a miserly and despicable being: he lied about the death of his mother and uncle, and used them to hide his humiliation. He was as impassive as usual, even Charlotte explained that there would always be a room for him in the Institute, and that he could express his immense gratitude for what he had done.

In the end, when they were already rattling on the Strand, Gideon spoke:

"I was convinced that Gabriel would come with me, now he has a responsibility to prevent our reputation from getting stained more than it is"

"I know," Charlotte justified. "Give it time"

"How did you know?" Will looked at Gideon very carefully. "We just discovered what happened to your mother, and Sophie said you had no idea ..."

"I had Cyril deliver two notes," explained the director. "One for Benedict and one for Gideon"

"He put it in my hand when my father did not look," Gideon confirmed. "I had just time to read it before they entered"

"And you decided to believe us?" Tessa asked. "So fast?"

The oldest of the Lightwood looked up at the wet glass. I was clenching my jaw.

"My father's story about my mother's death never made much sense to me, and after witnessing the truth in front of me and my brother, everything made sense now." He looked at the young man with blue hair. "Thank you, Minato, for making my father spit out his hidden truth"

Minato nodded silently in response. Gideon was going through a moment of depression, something that Minato himself understood, remembering the moment when he lost his father in that car accident during the battle of Aigis against Death. That fateful accident made him a cold and empty person without emotion. There were also other losses that the SEES group had suffered, but he and his friends managed to get ahead. Gideon was not alone, Sophie was always worried about him when she explained to everyone about Benedict's disease of demon pox, and had also seen the maid have feelings for him; in the training room would be an example of that attraction.

Speaking of relationships, he had Will and Tessa on the right side. On certain occasions, when the two of them were together, the tension between them grew; since they both had feelings for each other, something that he had captured during his stay at the Institute. Will had feelings for Tessa, and she too. His Persona, Parvati, Shiva's second wife and goddess of love, explained to him that Tessa's relationship with Jem had intensified. Which would be possible, since Tessa was carrying a jade pendant in his neck, something she had recently seen when she got into the carriage. The jade pendant on his neck was irrefutable evidence that Jem had declared to Tessa, and she had to accept the proposal of love. The girl must have felt pressured by the sudden surprise that Jem had made, but Tessa had a feeling for Will, her other platonic love. Minato could assume that Tessa decided to accept him, to alleviate his desire to have someone to love, and she could not reject him; James Carstairs being his other platonic love.

Sometimes love can be problematic in lovers.

When they arrived at the Institute, they were opened by a Cyril soaked to the skin and friendly as always, he went to open the doors of the vehicle.

He first helped Charlotte and then Tessa, and then Will, after jumping from the carriage and dodging a puddle by the hair. Mianto was the last of the carriage. The cloudy sky with a downpour if it was completely seen in the portraits and images of the Victorian London.

Minato observed that Will had taken Tessa by the arm through the main door of the Institute. He shook his head, and moved on. When he entered, he saw them entering the room, until the two doors closed, and he heard how the latch on the door had been squeezed. He tilted his head, confused. Maybe Will needed to have a private conversation with Tessa? Yes, that would be logical.

He shrugged and left them with his privacy.

* * *

Tessa blinked in confusion as Will closed the living room door.

"Will, why are you closing ...?"

He could not finish the sentence. In two strides, the boy covered the space that separated them and embraced her. She gasped in surprise when he put his arms around her and forced her back until she almost hit the wall.

"Will" she exclaimed in surprise, but he had her trapped against the wall with his body, running his torso through his hands, sinking them into his wet hair, his mouth burning over hers. Tessa felt that everything was spinning and she was drowning in that kiss; His lips were soft and his body was firm against hers; i knew rain. A wave of heat rose from his stomach as he kissed her intensely, seeking an answer.

Jem's face flashed before Tessa's closed eyes. He put his silver hands on Will's chest and pushed him as hard as he could. The breath came out in a violent exhalation.

"Do not"

The boy took a surprised step back. His voice, when he spoke, was grave and guttural.

"Huh? But ..."

"Why?" Tessa replied, her cheeks tinged with roses. "Because you did?"

"Why?" Will repeated, with a slight stutter in his voice. "Tessa ... I ... i did it because I love you!" he almost shouted at the last, and then, catching Tessa's bewildered look, confessed in a calmer voice. I love you, Tessa, and I've loved you almost from the moment I met you"

She interlaced her hands. He had them like ice.

"I thought you could not be more cruel than you were that day on the roof, I was wrong, this is even more cruel"

Will remained motionless. Then he began to slowly shake his head, from one side to the other, like an incredulous patient facing the doctor's fatal diagnosis.

"No ... do not you believe me?"

"Of course I do not believe you, after the things you said, the way you've treated me ..."

"I had to do it!" He exclaimed. "I had no choice, Tessa, listen to me." The girl started toward the door; He ran to block her, his eyes burning. "Please listen to me"

Tessa hesitated. The way he had said "please," the tone of his voice, was not like the one on the roof. At that moment, he had been almost unable to look at her. In it, he looked at her with despair, as if he could make her stay only by the sheer force of his desire. The voice that shouted inside him that he would hurt her again, that would not be sincere, was losing strength, covered by a treacherous voice louder and louder that told him to stay. Let him hear it.

"Tessa." Will ran his hands through his dark hair; the stylized fingers trembled with nervousness. Tessa remembered the sensation of touching that hair, of having her fingers sunk in it, like rough silk against the skin. "What happened on the roof was when I was thinking I was cursed, you remember the curse that Titania mentioned in Ravenscare, right?"

She nodded.

"Yes, I remember it clearly"

"And also the part where she mentions that as a child I accidentally opened the Pyxis and released the demon from the box, right?" she nodded. "Well, that's where I ruined everything, the devil had gone out and i was helpless, until my older sister, Ella, came to rescue me, but she got a prick from her tail. Do you remember that the Codex talks about curses and how was it that the demon went before he left, he cursed me, he told me who loved me would be condemned to die, i could not have believed it, i did not know much about black magic, but my older sister died that same night, from a horrible way, and i thought it was the beginning of the curse, I ran away from my family and i came here, it seemed like the only way to keep them safe, so as not to cause death after death, at first i did not realize that I was entering a second family. Henry, Charlotte, even the damned Jessamine ... I had to make sure no one could love me, because otherwise, i thought, I would put them in danger ... For years I've kept everyone at a distance ... everyone to which i could not definitively distance entity"

Tessa stared at him. The words echoed in his head. _'Keeping everyone at a distance ... definitely moving away ...'_

He thought of his lies, of how he hid, of the unpleasant way he treated Charlotte and Henry, of the cruelties that seemed forced, even in the story of Tatiana, who had loved him as little girls loved her, and whose affection he I had shattered. And later...

"Jem ..." Tessa whispered.

He looked at her sadly.

"Jem is different," he whispered.

"Did you let him come near because his death was coming soon? Did you think your curse would not affect him?"

"And with each passing year, and that he survived, that seemed more likely, i thought i could learn to live like that. I thought that when Jem was missing and after turning eighteen, i would go live alone, without anyone having to put up with me. to me or my curse ... and then, everything changed. For you"

"For me?" Tessa asked in a dull and stunned voice.

Will sketched a faint smile.

"When I met you, I thought you were different from all the other people I had met, you made me laugh, nobody except Jem has made me laugh for, God, five years, and you did like nothing, like breathing"

"You did not even know me, Will ..."

"Ask Magnus, he will tell you, after that night on the roof, I went to see him, I had separated you from me because i thought you had begun to perceive what I felt for you. That day, in the Sanctuary, when I thought you had i realized that you must have seen it in my face, i was terrified, i had to get you to hate me, Tessa, so i tried, and then i wanted to die, i had thought that I could stand that you hated me, but i was not capable. knowing that you would stay in the Institute, and that whenever i saw you it would be like going back to the roof, making you despise me while I felt like I was taking poison. I went to see Magnus and demanded that he help me find the demon he had cursed me, so i could put an end to the curse. After learning that this demon had never cursed me, and that it was all a dirty lie, i decided it was time to seek revenge. the fi i killed that wretch and i avenged the death of Ella!"

"That blue demon when Alice destroyed her companions and left him alive" Tessa remembered what happened when they ran into them after being teleported by the magic of Magnus Bane. "He wants everything finished, Will, you got your revenge"

"Yes, I fulfilled my goal, that bastard tricked me, i was never cursed, all those years, I was stupid, but not so stupid as not to know that the first thing I had to do as soon as I heard the truth was to tell you what I really feel." He took another step forward, and that time she did not back down. I looked at him, I looked at the pale, almost translucent skin under my eyes; he looked at the hair that curled at his temples, at the nape of his neck; i looked at the blue eyes and the curve of the lips. I looked at him as if i could look at a place I wanted to see if i would see again, trying to keep the details in my memory, engrave them on my eyelids to see them when I closed my eyes at night.

He heard his own voice as if it came from far away.

"Why me?" whisper. "Why me, Will?"

He hesitated.

"After we brought you here, after Charlotte found the letters to your brother, i ... read them"

Tessa raised an eyebrow, surprised.

"Did you read them?"

"Yes" answer. "I read them all, each one of the words that you wrote, you and me, Tessa, we are like, we live and breathe words, it was the books that prevented me from taking my life after I thought that i could never love anyone, that never It was the books that made me feel that maybe i was not completely alone, they could be honest with me, and i with them, read your letters, what you wrote, how sometimes you felt lonely and scared but you were always brave, the way you saw the world, its colors, textures and sounds, made me feel ... It made me know what you thought, you expected, you felt, you dreamed, i felt that I was dreaming, thinking and feeling with you. you dreamed, i wanted what you wanted, and then I realized that what i really wanted was you, the girl who was behind those letters, i loved you from the moment i read them, i still love you"

Tessa had begun to tremble. That is what I had always wanted someone to say. What he had always wanted, in the most hidden corner of his heart, to be told by Will. Will, the boy who loved the same books as her, the same poetry as her, that made her laugh even when she was furious. And there he was, before her, telling her that he loved the words of his heart, the form of his soul. Telling him something they would never tell him again, not like that. And not him.

And it did not matter.

"It's too late," she said.

"Do not say that." Will's voice was almost a whisper. "I love you, Tessa, i love you"

She shook her head.

"Will ... for"

He breathed raggedly.

"I knew you would have a hard time trusting me," he replied. "Tessa, please, do not you believe me or never imagine that you will never love me again?"

"Will, that does not matter ..."

"Nothing matters more!" His voice grew stronger. "I know that if you hate me it's because I forced you to do it, I know you're not right to give me a second chance, so you can see me differently, but I beg you to give me that opportunity. I'm going to do anything.

His voice broke and he heard the echo again. He saw Jem, looking at her, with all the love, hope and expectation of the world concentrated in his eyes.

"No," she whispered. "It is impossible"

"It's not true," he said desperately. "It can not be, you can not hate me so much ..."

"I do not hate you at all," she acknowledged, with great sadness. "I tried to hate you, Will, but I did not understand"

"Then, there is a possibility" Will was reborn in her eyes.

Tessa thought that she should not have spoken to him tenderly; Oh, God (or YHVH as they call it in the scriptures of the bible and arbiter of the Great Will who oversees the universe of shadowhunters), would there be any way to make it less terrible? I had to tell him. Already. In seguid. Clearly.

"Tessa," he continued before speaking. "If you do not hate me, then there's a chance you can ..."

"Jem told me," Tessa said sharply. "And I said yes"

"What?"

"I said that I have been declared to Jem," he repeated in a whisper. "He asked me if I would marry him, and I said yes"

Will had turned pale with shock.

"Jem. My Jem?"

She nodded, unable to find words.

The boy staggered and put his hand on the back of a chair to avoid falling. It looked like someone who had suddenly been brutally kicked in the stomach.

"When?"

"This morning, but we have been intimate for a long time, much more intimate"

"You ... and Jem?" Will seemed to be asked to believe in something impossible, like snow in summer or a London without rain in winter.

In response, Tessa touched with her fingertips the jade pendant that Jem had given her.

"He gave me this," he revealed, his voice muffled. "It was his mother's wedding present."

Will looked at him and noticed the chinese characters, as if he were a snake wrapped around Tessa's neck.

"He never said anything to me, he never said a word about you, not like that." He pushed his hair back from his face, with the characteristic gesture that Tessa had seen him make thousands, only this time, the hand trembled visibly. "You love him?"

"Yes, I love him," Tessa replied, and then saw Will cringe. "You do not?"

"But he would understand," Will said stunned. "If I explained it to you, if we explained it ... I would understand it"

For a moment, Tessa imagined taking off the pendant, walking down the hall and knocking on Jem's door. Returning it to you. Telling him that it was a mistake, that he could not marry him. He would tell everything to her, tell her all about Will and her; that she was not sure, that she needed time, that she could not promise her heart, that part of her belonged to Will and always belonged to him.

And then he thought of the first words he had heard from Jem, with his eyes closed, his back, his face bathed in the moonlight: _'Will? Will, right?'_

 _'I can not separate them'_ she thought. _'I can not be responsible for something like that. I can not tell the truth to any of them'_

He imagined Jem's face if he despised his commitment. It would be good. Jem was always kind. But I would be breaking something precious inside him, something essential. Then he would not be the same anymore, and he would not have Will to comfort him. And he had very little time left ... but it was possible to cure him of his illness. Minato could use his Persona power to save him. She remembered the moment they went to look for Will in the opium lair in Chaple, and where he ordered Ryoji to use a spell to cure him of his intoxication, and maybe ...

And the will? What would he do then? No matter what she thought at that moment, Tessa knew that if she broke her commitment, still, he would not touch her, would not be with her, no matter how much he loved her. How could he show his love for her in front of Jem, knowing that his happiness was at the expense of his best friend's pain? Even if Will told himself he could for him, she would always be the girl Jem loved, until the day Jem died. Until the day she died. He would not betray Jem, not even after he was dead. If it had been someone else, someone in the world ... but she did not love any other person in the world. Those were the guys i loved. For good And for bad.

"Explain what?" He put on the coldest voice he could. And more calm.

Will stared at her. The stars in his eyes on the stairs, as he closed the door, when he kissed her ... a bright and happy light. But it was disappearing, vanishing like the last breath of a dying man. Tessa felt as if she was seeing life escape from Will Herondale, and there was nothing she could do to stop that hemorrhaging.

"Jem will forgive me," Will said, but there was helplessness in his face, in his voice. He had surrendered, thought Tessa; Will who never gave up before the battle began. "Jem ..."

"I would," she said. "He has never been angry with you, Will, he loves you too much for that, I do not even think he held a grudge against me, but this morning he told me that before he knew me, he believed that he would die without having loved anyone as his father had loved his mother , without being reciprocated with an equal love, do you want me to knock on your door and take that away? Would you still love me if I did?

Will looked at her for a long moment. Then it seemed to crumble inside, like a house of cards; He sat on the couch, and put his face in his hands.

"Do you promise me," he told her, "that you love him? Enough to marry him and make him happy?"

"Yes," Tessa replied.

"So, if you love him," he continued in a low voice, "please, Tessa, do not tell her what I just told you, do not tell her I love you."

"I promise, I promise you for my angel, my mother's angel, and, Will ..."

He had lowered his hand, but he still did not seem able to look at her. He had the arms of the chair clutched, white knuckles.

"I think you better go, Tessa"

But she could not bear to do it. Not while he was like this, as if his soul was dying. What Tessa most wanted was to hug him and kiss his eyes closed, make him smile again.

"What you have endured," she said. "Since I was twelve years old ... I would have killed most people, you've always believed that no one loved you that no one could love you, because their survival was proof that they did not, but Charlotte loves you, and Henry. Jem. And your family, they've always loved you, Will Herondale, because you can not hide the kindness in you, no matter how hard you try. "

Will raised his head and looked at her. She saw the flames of fire reflected in her eyes.

"And you? Do you love me?"

Tessa dug her nails into the palm of her hand.

"Will"

He looked at her, almost through her, blindly.

"You love me?"

"I ..." Tessa took a deep breath. It hurt "Jem has been right about you all this time, you were better than I thought, and that's why I apologize, because if this is you, you're really like that, and I think so, then it will not be hard for you to find someone who will love, Will, someone for whom you are the first in your heart, but i ... "

She shook her head, bewildered.

"Will, I do not ..."

"You can never love me," he snapped, and when she did not answer, when she saw that she did not say anything, she shuddered; A shudder that ran through his entire body. Then he got up from the chair without looking at her. He crossed the room very erect, and looked awkwardly for the latch. She watched him with her hand over her mouth, while, after what seemed like an eternity, she found him, opened it and went out into the hall, slamming the door behind her.

 _'Will'_ thought Tessa. _'Will, is that you?'_

His eyes hurt. Somehow she realized that she was sitting on the floor of the fireplace. She looked at the flames, waiting for the tears. Nothing happened. After so much time containing them, it had apparently lost the ability to emerge.

she took the poker from the hook of the fireplace, stuck the point into the heart of the burning coals and felt the heat on his face. The jade pendant that hung on his neck warmed, almost burning his skin.

she pulled the poker from the fire. It shone as red as a heart. He gripped his burning tip in his hand.

For a moment he felt absolutely nothing. And then, as from a great distance, she heard himself shouting, and that was when a key turned in his heart and finally released a torrent of tears. The poker sputtered on the floor.

Minato and Sophie came in hearing his cry, they found Tessa on her knees by the fire, pressing her burned hand to her chest, sobbing as if her heart would break.

Minato applied the healing spell, and Tessa's hand healed, erasing the burn. The maid took Tessa to her room, where she laid down on her bed carefully, letting out a moan. She looked at her hand; there was no sign of his wound. She thanked Minato, who accepted the compliment with a silent nod.

Tessa commented on what happened in the room, and also about her problem the problem when a person falls in love. The maid calmed him down by telling him that it was something very normal that happened between people, because Sophie had feelings for Gideon Lightwood. As for Minato; he remained neutral on the subject of love, saying that he was never interested in having a loving relationship, because they were his own classmates who went to him, especially Mitsuru and Elizabeth.

"I used to think I would marry young Jem ..." Sophie lifted the blanket, and then looked up and smiled sadly. "Not broken his heart yet, right?"

"No," Tessa replied. _'Only mine has split in two.'_ "Not break his heart at all"

 _'The youngs and love'_ said Parvati in Minato's mind.

* * *

Music was coming out from under Jem's door, which was ajar. Will stayed with his hand on the knob and his shoulder leaning against the wall. He felt deeply exhausted, more tired than he had ever been in his life. A terrible fiery energy had kept him alert since he had left Cheyne Walk, but it had already dissipated, exhausted, and only an exhausted darkness remained.

He had expected Tessa to find him after leaving the room slamming the door, but he had not. He could still see her, looking at him, with those eyes the color of gray storm clouds.

 _'Je, I have been declared. And I said yes'_

 _'You love him?'_

 _'Yes I love it'_

And yet, there it was, at Jem's door. He did not know if he had gone there to try to convince his friend to leave Tessa, if something like that could be achieved, or, more likely, if he had gone because that was where he had learned to go in search of comfort and could not forget the custom of years. Open the door; the magic light illuminated the corridor, and Will entered Jem's room.

He was sitting on the trunk at the foot of the bed, playing the violin. His eyes were closed as the bow passed through the ropes, but he smiled when his parabatai entered the room.

"Will? Is it you, Will?" I ask.

"Yes" he answered. He had stopped just outside the door, and he felt he could not go any further.

Jem stopped touching and opened his eyes.

"Teleman," he said. " _Fantasy in my older_ " He left the violin and the bow. "Come in once, you make me nervous by staying there"

Will took a few more steps. He had spent so many moments in that room that he knew her as well as hers. The collection of music books; the case in which he kept the instrument when he did not touch it; the windows that let square patches of sunlight pass. The trunk with which he had traveled from Shanghai. The cane with its jade knob, leaning against the wall. The box with Kwan Yin on the lid, which contained the drugs. The chair in which Will had spent countless nights, watching Jem sleep, counting his breaths and begging for nothing to happen to him.

Jem looked at him. His eyes were luminous; no suspicion clouded them, only the simple happiness of seeing his friend.

"I'm happy that you're here"

"Me too," Will said moodily. He felt uncomfortable, and he wondered if Jem would notice. He had never felt uncomfortable near his parabatai before. It was the words, he thought, that he had on the tip of his tongue, pressing to be said.

 _'You see, do not you, Jem? Without Tessa I have nothing, neither joy, nor light, nor life. If you loved me, you would leave it to be mine. You can not love her the way I love her. Nobody could. If you really are my brother, you will do this for me'_

But the words were not spoken, and Jem leaned forward, his voice low and confidential.

"Will, there's something I wanted to tell you, but in privacy"

Will prepared. There was. Jem was going to tell him about the engagement, and he was going to have to pretend to be happy, and not throw up out the window, which was what he really wanted to do. He put his hands in his pockets.

"And what is?"

The sun flashed in Jem's hair when Jem ducked his head.

"I should have talked to you before, but we've never discussed the subject of love, right? And since you're so cynical ..." He smiled sideways. "I thought you would make fun of me, and I never thought there would be any possibility that she would reciprocate"

"Tessa," Will said. His name became knives in his mouth.

Jem's smile was radiant, it lit up his whole face, and any hope Will had entertained in some secret compartment in his heart that Jem might not really love her, disappeared, dragged like a haze by a strong wind.

"You have never shied away from your obligations," Jem said. "And I know you would have done everything possible to save Tessa in the tea store, whoever it was, but it was Minato who used his power to save her, certainly something you would do to save the girl who means so much to me." He threw back his head, with an incandescent smile. "Did I guess well or am I an idiot topped?"

"You're an idiot," Will answered, and swallowed hard with a parched throat. "But ... you're not wrong, I know what it means to you"

Jem smiled satisfied. He had happiness written all over his face, in his eyes, Will realized; i had never seen him like this before. He had always considered Jem a calm and peaceful presence; he had always thought that happiness, like rage, was a human emotion too intense for him. In that moment he realized that he had been very wrong; it was simply that Jem had never been happy before. Not since his parents died, Will supposed. But this one had never thought about it. He had concentrated on whether Jem was safe, if he survived, but not if he was happy.

 _'Jem is my great sin'_

He was aware that Tessa was right. He had wanted her to break with Jem, at any cost; but seeing it, he realized he could not. _'At least you can believe I know the honor ... the honor and the debt,'_ he had told Jem with all his heart. He owed Jem his life. He could not snatch what he wanted most. Even at the cost of his own happiness, because Jem was not only someone with whom he had a debt he could never repay, but, as the ritual said, someone he loved more than his own soul. There was also Minato Arisato; the blue-haired mundane who had been able to help them all through his journey in search of Mortmain, and had also helped him to know that he never had a curse, and that he had killed that demon for revenge for the death of his older sister . I had a great debt to both of them.

"Thank you, Will," he said in his soft, friendly voice. "It's good to have you by my side"

Will closed his eyes. He saw the black basalt of the Council room, the two circles burning on the floor. Jem going from his circle to Will's, to inhabit the same space, marked by fire. Then, his eyes were still black, very large in his pale face. Will remembered the words of parabatai's oath: "Wherever you go, I'll go; where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried: may the Angel do that to me, and much more, if death is not the only thing that separates us". The same voice spoke to him at that moment.

"We are parabatai" Will said with a smile at their corners. "We are like brothers united by destiny"

Jem laughed.

"Besides," he continued. "Will not you ask Minato to cure you of illness?"

"I was thinking about that"

* * *

The council chamber was covered with red banners sewn by black runes; Minato listened to Jem telling Tessa that they were runes of decision and judgment.

They sat to the front, in a line that also occupied Henry, Gideon, Charlotte, Will, Jem and Tessa. Minato had dressed after breakfast. The meeting to dictate about the threat of Axel Mortmain had been created in the same place where he was for the first time. Moreover, when he was in the Institute dressing, he had observed that Tessa and Will never exchanged glances between the two; making him think that the discussion in the room had affected them both. Tessa had grabbed the hot poker accidentally, but that had been a lie invented by herself to inflict pain.

The amorous problems returned to the very insane individuals, and he saw it every hour while he remained in the Institute, but he remained silent and neutral; the love triangle was the problem of Tessa, Will and Jem. Minato would never stand in someone else's way, and respected the privacy of others.

Tessa and Jem were at his side; very united. While Will looked at them from his left side, but Tessa did not look at him at all. Neither of them made contacts or greeted each other when they left for Westminster Abbey to participate in the Clave meeting. His long stay in Victorian London would be very complicated.

In the seats of the elevated platform in the center of the room was Benedict Lightwood, with his profile high, but decayed by the confrontation in his dwelling; with the features trying not to seem defeated, but inside he was. He was separated from the mass of the Council. Beside him was Gabriel, who, like Will, looked exhausted and disheveled. He looked at his brother when Gideon stepped into the salt, and then looked away as he deliberately sat among the Shadowhunters of the Institute. The little Lightwood bit his lip and looked at the ground, but did not move.

Minato recognized a few more faces among the attendees. Charlotte's aunt, Callida, was there, and so was the emaciated great-grandfather of Tessa, Aloysius Starkweather, despite, as he had complained, that he had certainly not been invited. He squinted at the sight of Tessa, and Minato saw that she quickly looked back to the front of the room.

"We are here," the Consul Wayland began speaking after standing before the lectern, with the Inquisitor on his left, "to determine to what extent Charlotte and Henry Branwell have helped the Clave during the last fortnight in the Axel Mortmain affair."

The Inquisitor could stand. He held something that flashed silver and black.

"Charlotte Branwell, please come to the lectern"

The woman stood up and climbed the steps of the podium. The Inquisitor lowered the Mortal Sword, and she put her hands around the blade. In a quiet voice he recounted the events of the last two weeks: the trip to Yorkshire to seek more information about his whereabouts, the threat against the Herondales, discovery of Jessamine's betrayal, the capture of Nathaniel Gray, and also, the place in where Mortmain was hiding, which caused a great fright among those present, and the Inquisitor made them shut up, but the murmurs spread throughout the room.

There were several moments during Charlotte's speech in which the Council reacted audibly: brusque aspirations, stirring feet, especially at the revelation of Jessamine's role in the matter.

"I met your parents," Minato heard him say to Callida, Charlotte's aunt, at the back of the room. "Terrible event ... terrible!"

"And where is the girl now?" asked the Inquisitor.

"In the cells of the Silent City, along with Nathaniel Gray," Charlotte replied, "expecting both of them to be punished for their crimes, I already informed the Consul about his whereabouts, and Nathaniel's."

The Inquisitor, who had been moving from one side of the platform to the other, stopped and stared at Charlotte.

"You say that this young lady was like a daughter to you," she explained. "And yet, you gave it to the brothers voluntarily, why would you do something like that?"

"The Law is hard," said Charlotte. "But it's the Law; she and Nathaniel Gray are criminals who conspired to overthrow us. It was all thanks to the participation of Minato Arisato"

The whole room began to murmur and they agreed; Minato Arisato had surprised them with the ability to invoke Cu Chulainn and Metatron in the, a moment that changed the experiences of all shadowhunters present, and then be transferred from generation to generation.

The Consul Wayland had to contain a smile.

"And you said that Charlotte was a soft one with the evildoers, and it is true. Minato Arisato has lent a lot of help when he mysteriously arrived at the Institute, and it was he who released the Ithuriel angel who was imprisoned in miss Gray's pendant, and that also gave us a lot of information about Mortmain's past and his thirst for revenge for the death of his adoptive parents a few years ago. "All agreed, while Aloysius was increasingly surprised by what he had just heard.. Wayland put his eyes to Benedict. "Any comment?"

Benedict stood up; it was clear that on that day he had decided to formally groom himself with a half-tweed jacket. He grimaced when he moved his left shoulder; where Lilith's boa had bitten him atrociously. He spoke:

"I do have a comment," he said." I fully support Charlotte Branwell in her position as director of the Institute. I thought that Charlotte would never be able to handle a greater responsibility in finding Mortmain, and I wanted to put my claim as the new director. But everything changed when the mysterious warlock Minato Arisato had entered the scene, and seeing for the first time an ancient hero and two angels of Heaven, I decided to abandon my claim and let her and the others do their work"

Aloysius had gray eyes more open like blinds and eyebrows raised. What he heard was hard to believe, and he was witnessing that.

A murmur ran through the room.

The Inquisitor turned to look at him, incredulous.

"Are you saying that you now recognize that Charlotte has done her good work after beginning the investigation into Mortmain?"

"Yes. I reckon I've let myself be carried away by my ego in the meeting" there was melancholy in his voice. "Now I see that they have done a great job in knowing where they are hiding. As the great mundane military strategist, Sun Tzu, said in _The Art of War_ : "If you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win hundreds. of battles without a single loss." We know who Mortmain is: a mortal man, not a supernatural being, a man who fears death, a man dedicated to revenge for what he considers the unmerited murder of his family. He has used the lycanthropes to build his army of automatons as fast as possible, giving them drugs that kept them working all day, and knowing that these drugs would kill the wolves and ensure their silence. of the warehouse and the number of workers he has employed, his mechanical army will be numerous, and judging by his motivation and the years during which he has refined his strategies for revenge, he is a man with that can not be reasoned, that can not be deterred, that can not be stopped. We must prepare for war. And that's something we did not know before"

The Inquisitor looked at Benedict with that strange melancholy voice, which was very strange to him.

"Prepare for war, and how do you suggest we do it? It would be a great risk to go to Wales and face it, we do not know if he has prepared a trap for us when we go there to catch him "

Benedict shrugged.

"Well, that, of course, should be decided by the Council from here. Mortmain has tried to recruit powerful downworlders, such as Woosley Scott and Camille Belcourt for his cause, but they refused to do so, and" he gestured to Minato. "We have him, do not we? It was he who summoned Metatron in this room and had the Ithuriel angel released from his incarceration, and it was he who helped the Branwells catch Nathaniel Gray and reveal where Mortmain is hiding. everything, we have him, called the Messiah by Ithuriel himself"

All the room began to agree with funny and surprised voices of what happened at the previous meeting. Aloysius Starkweather, who had sat in his place, was witness to all the conversations he was hearing from those present; making himself surprised more and more, and more.

All eyes wandered towards Minato, sitting with the group of the Institute of London with his stoic and neutral expression, he did not show any emotion of startle when everyone looked at him and began to talk about him, especially the women and young girls; which was not very unusual in his universe when he entered Gekkoukan High School, being the object of all the girls' looks. Who would not be attracted to a reserved young man with blue hair that covered his left bangs and eyes like the ocean? But being in the universe of shadowhunters is very different being in his universe: many would signal it as a sterile warlock, but he was not a warlock; he was an ordinary human with natural hair, but some would think he dyed it, which is not true.

Wayland thundered his mallet to silence.

"It's true," he acknowledged. "It is true that the warlock Minato Arisato has made an incredible demonstration of his power as an invoker, but ..."

A scream cut the commotion. Minato stood up instantly, with his Evoker in his hand and carrying it to his temple, and turned back. Callida, Charlotte's aunt, was shouting with the elegant gray head thrown back and pointing her finger upward. There were choked cries throughout the room when the other shadowhunters followed his gaze. High above it was flooded by dozens of black metal creatures, which hummed like huge black steel beetles with copper wings and ran from one side to the other in the air, filling the room with the unpleasant sound of a metallic rumble.

Minato triggered the trigger, and the fragments regrouped in a dark blue whirlpool, archangel Uriel appearing on the scene, causing a great stir among all shadowhunters, including Aloysius Starkweather. With the wings of his wings, Uriel rose majestically towards the ceiling, destroying one by one the metallic beetles, stabbing them with deadly slits. The shadowhunters that looked with great astonishment on their faces.

One of the metal beetles jumped instantly to avoid being stabbed by the archangel's sword, sinking down and staying in front of Tessa, at the height of his eyes emitting a click. It lacked eyes, although it had a circular glass plate in the flat front of the head. Jem grabbed her arm, trying to push her away, but she let go, impatient; He took his hat off his head and caught the thing. Instantly, a raging and sharp buzzing came from inside her.

"Henry!" called Tessa. "Henry, I have one of those things ..."

He appeared behind her, and looked at the hat. A hole was opening in the side of the elegant velvet, where the metallic creature was breaking it. With a curse, Henry lowered his fist hard, slashing the hat and the one inside, which hummed one last time and went still.

Jem lifted the battered hat carefully. What lay beneath him was a jumble of parts: a metal wing, a shattered chassis, and broken stumps of copper legs.

"Phew!" exclaimed Tessa. "It's so like a bug"

Minato observed upwards that his Persona had finished exterminating all the robotic beetles. He returned in front of his summoner and teacher.

"All the metallic insects have been exterminated, Master," said Uriel honestly, who nodded silently. Minato saw that the roof was completely formed by deep wells with metal parts embedded in the holes and some in the ground. All the eyes of the shadowhunters were fixed on him and on his Persona of the Arcana Tower. There was amazement and impact on each of their faces, especially Consul Wayland, Inquisitor Whitelaw and Aloysius Starkweather himself.

Charlotte was there; healthy and without any scratch, with the Mortal Sword in your hands. Minato's gaze was fixed on Benedict, who had a frightened face and swallowed hard, while his second son was amazed. Minato put on a serious and frozen face. His Persona looked at him, and he knew very well what that expression meant: it was time to put everything in its place.

Benedict had been seized by Uriel's neck, and had thrown him to the ground, putting him in the center of all the perplexed glances of the nephilims. Benedict moaned with intense pain that ran through his entire body, including his shoulder hurt by the bite. When he was about to get up, the sharp point of Uriel's sword was inches from the bridge of his nose. He swallowed with fear.

"Confess, traitor!" Uriel demanded with authority and strength in his voice, raising it like thunder. "It's about time you confess all your misdeeds, nephilim!"

All the shadowhunters began to mutter anguish to each other. The members of the London Institute had serious expressions, while Aloysius was confused, as were the Consul Wayland and Inquisitor Whitelaw. The Lightwood brothers' eyes were hardened, ready to hear his father's confession.

"I ... I ..." Benedict's voice was broken and he saw her fixed on the tip of his sword, until he fixed it on the ground. "I worked secretly with Mortmain" a big exclamation went through all the shadowhunters. He went on: "I joined him to be the owner of the Institute, before Minato Arisato showed up, I explained about the attempts to find him through Jessamine Lovelace as our spy, and I also told him where we were meeting to discuss our issues my pride" swallowed. "And also ... I'm infected with a demonic disease"

With the mere mention of being infected, everyone started to get upset, but Uriel shut them up raising his voice. Wayland told him to explain everything, which Benedict let go of everything, causing everyone present to feel disgusted and upset, as his followers did, until at last he finished saying everything.

Uriel spoke authoritatively.

"Benedict Lightwood, you have done an act that has no word to describe in front of everyone, you carry my brother's blood, a representation of an oath that has been made to keep the world safe from the threat of demons over the years, and that's how you do it! Join the enemy to satisfy your vain sins! SHOULD GIVE YOU SHAME!" He raised his sword upward, where a flame impregnated the blade, leaving the shadowhunters pale in fear at their posts. "I, Uriel, who oversees the souls of mortals and their deeds, will be put on trial by the Council of the nephilim." He looked at the Lightwood brothers. "The children do not have the right to bear the sins of their parents. Gabriel and Gideon Lightwood are not guilty of their father's crimes, they will not take away their possessions, nor will they be deprived of their trademarks and surnames. name by your own hands: that will be my verdict on you" the Persona disappeared in a smoke.

Consul Josiah Wayland cleared his throat.

"Agreeing with the words of Lord Uriel, it has been concluded that Benedict Lightwood is considered guilty for treason and other misdeeds against the Law" he looked at Whitelaw. "Do you agree?"

"Strongly agree," the Inquisitor Whitelaw told him with a frown and a daggering look at Benedict.

"Then, the defendant pleads guilty, as long as Gideon and Gabriel are not deprived of their possessions by the order of archangel Uriel, the matter with Mortmain will be discussed on another occasion, this meeting is over," he affirmed as he took the mallet.

The murmurs began to permeate the room. Some speak about the appearance of Uriel, while others talk about the guilt of Benedict Lightwood. All eyes were fixed on the Lightwood brothers, and, above all, on Minato. Aloysius Starkweather to you are have very document of the you was; he had never seen such shadowhunters in his life, much less the power of the japanese warlock he had seen when he was accompanied by the three members of the London Institute. What he witnessed left him very stunned.

Many shadowhunters approached them and congratulated them on their investigations. They asked several questions, mostly to Minato, who remained calm and gave no information, just a few words. Aloysius had approached him, and told him that he was sorry for discriminating him on his arrival, and also for showing the exhibitions; He even asked for his power to invoke the archangel Uriel and his title as Messiah. Then he went to Tessa and asked for his welfare. Benedict had been taken by two shadowhunters on Wayland's orders, while he searched the entire place for hidden automatons.

Minato and the others decided to leave the meeting; we had to rest from what happened.

* * *

"It's a kind of camera," said Henry, holding the pieces of the shattered metal beetle in his lap as the carriage rattled through his house. "Without Jessamine, Nathaniel or Benedict, Mortmain must have run out of reliable human spies who can inform him, so he has sent these things." He touched the remains of Tessa's hat.

"Mortmain must be worrying right now without feeling safe," Will said. "He sent those metallic insects to know what we would be doing in how to catch him in his hiding place"

Minato reminded him of the security cameras in his world, but Mortmain moved quickly to create them first, which surprised him a lot.

"It was only a matter of time," Charlotte replied. "Henry, can those things record sound, like a phonograph, or just images?"

"I'm not sure." Her husband frowned. "I'll have to examine the parts more carefully in the crypt, I do not find any sealing mechanism, but that means ..." He looked at the noncompressed faces that were watching him, but headed for Minato. "Any help on your knowledge about technology in your universe?"

Minato shrugged.

"I can assume that the insects that Mortmain had created have an image recording program with sound record, like the security cameras and the video cameras of my universe, in that I can be sure"

Everyone stared at him, surprised by the information about the technology of his modern world, especially Henry, who was very anxious as a child to know more.

"Does that mean that Mortmain had implanted what you said?" said Henry, with astonishment in his voice.

The young man with blue hair nodded in response.

"By angel..."

"Video-cameras?" Jem commented with an eyebrow raised with curiosity. "How is that?"

Minato explained to him what a video camera of his universe was, which made one more surprising to them. They did not blame them for their curiosity about the technology of the modern world; only they had seen for the first time the automata as barely advanced technology, only expected to reach the televisions, cars, airplanes, satellites, and the invention of the nuclear bomb; which would happen during the creation of the First World War.

Anyway, it was in the Victorian era, a time when industries and machines were at their peak.

The carriage stopped with a jerk in front of the Institute. Relieved to be able to leave that little space of shadowhunters, and went out into the courtyard.

There was a clearing in the gray cloud that covered the city, and a lemon-yellow light fell through it, shining the staircase that led to the door. Charlotte started toward her, but Henry stopped her, and put her arms around her that did not hold Tessa's badly hat. Minato watched them; They both had a hint of happiness when everything was put in its place. He appreciated Charlotte and Henry very much, something he had experienced when he surrounded himself with his first friends in his early days as a member of SEES. I was happy for them.

"What we have to remember is that everything has gone as well as we could have hoped," said Henry, squeezing her against him. "I'm very proud of you, darling"

Minato waited for a sarcastic comment from Will, but he was looking toward the fence. Gideon looked embarrassed, and Jem, was pleased.

Charlotte turned away from her husband; She blushed violently and put her hat on, but she was obviously delighted.

"Really, Henry?"

"Absolutely! Not only is my wife beautiful, but she is brilliant, and that genius must be recognized!"

"Here," said Will, still looking at the fence "is when Jessamine had told them to stop because they are making her sick"

The smile disappeared from Charlotte.

"Poor Jessie ..."

But her husband's expression was much harsher than usual.

"I should not have done what she did, Lottie, it's not your fault, you can only hope the Council is not too hard on her." He cleared his throat. "And we will not talk about Jessamine today, okay? Tonight is to celebrate"

His wife looked at him smiling from ear to ear, with so much love in his eyes that Minato kept his indifference on his face, and set his gaze on the Institute. Flicker. At the top of the stone facade, he caught a slight movement and saw a face staring at them. Sophie looking for Gideon? I could not be sure; the face had disappeared instantly.

* * *

Minato was in the dining room formally dressed in a dark blue suit and dark pants that Charlotte had told him to wear for dinner. Bridget, who could be heard singing sadly in the kitchen, had taken great pains in the dining room, and had adorned it with candles in silver candelabras everywhere, flooding the room of light. Freshly cut roses and orchids floated in silver bowls on the white tablecloth. Henry and Charlotte presided over the table. Gideon, in his tuxedo, was sitting with his eyes fixed on Sophie as she walked in and out of the dining room, though she seemed to be avoiding his looks. And next to him was Will on his right side.

"Is your cook always singing?" Gideon was asking in a startled tone when Jem and Tessa entered the dining room.

Tessa and Jem had sat across from Minato, together. Tessa a blue satin dress with a heart-shaped yoke and a rounded neckline on which was fastened a lace petillo. The sleeves were short and bulging, and exposed their long arms. He had hair in the shape of a crown. His jade pendant was hidden under the lace, where it could not be seen. Jem wore his formal gray suit and pants of the same color, combining with his eyes and hair. Minato observed that Tessa was diverting her eyes from Will's, avoiding direct contact. The tension between the two was tense on the table, as were Bridget's ballads.

Henry looked up and, seeing them, gave them a big smile with his freckled, freckled face.

"We started to wonder where they would be ..." he began.

"Tessa and I have news," Jem said. He reached for the girl's hand and took it; Minato raised an eyebrow, while Henry, Gideon and Charlotte looked at them curiously, including Sophie, who had just appeared. Will followed where he was, looking at the silver bowl in front of him; a white rose floated on it, and Will seemed willing to look at Tessa until she sank. In the kitchen, Bridget was still singing one of her terribly sad songs; the letter was coming through the door:

 _"On a clear afternoon I went out to take the cool_

 _I heard a maiden moaning;_

 _He said: "Have you seen my father? Or my mother?_

 _Or my brother John?_

 _Or the boy I love the most,_

 _By the name Sweet William?"_

That made his Persona of the Arcana of Death and the Devil laugh even more.

"Well, you'll have to tell us already," Charlotte urged, smiling. "Do not leave us on the embers, Jem"

Jem held up his joined hands.

"Tessa and I are engaged, I asked her, and she ... she accepted me"

There was a silence of surprise. Now Parvati's words made sense, and all the Persona of each Arcana began to applaud and congratulate them. Gideon looked stunned; in a vague way. Sophie stared at them with a little jug of cream in her hand, her mouth agape. Both Henry and Charlotte seemed to have been speechless. Minato maintained his calm expression without being startled by the news of the engagement. Nobody had expected that. A mestizo nephilim-demon marrying a shadowhunter was something he had never seen before; it was known that the warlock are sterile due to their mutations, but Tessa was different. She had demonic blood and angelic blood, which would be possible or not to get pregnant.

Will, who was sitting without saying anything, got in, with a drink in his hand and lifted it.

"I do not know two better people," he said, "and I can not think of a better story, that their lives together be long and happy." He looked for Tessa with his eyes, then pushed them away from her and stuck them in Jem. "Congrats brother"

A torrent of other voices followed his brief speech. Sophie put down the jar and went to hug Tessa; Minato, Henry and Gideon shook Jem's hand, and Will stared at everything, still holding the cup. Amidst the joy of happy voices, only Charlotte remained silent, her hand on her chest. Minato saw Tessa approach her, worried.

"Charlotte, is everything okay?"

"Yes," she answered, and then raised her voice. "Yes ... I ... I also have news ... Good news"

"Yes honey," Henry released. "It's a very special moment for all of us!"

"Yes ..." The little woman made a noise like a hiccup, half laugh, half crying. "Henry and I are going to have a son, a son, Brother Enoch told me, I did not want to say anything before, but ..."

The rest of his words were buried by Henry's incredulous shout of joy. He lifted his wife from his chair and hugged her.

"Honey, that's wonderful, wonderful ..."

Sophie gave a little cry and clapped her hands. Gideon looked so embarrassed that he could imagine that he could die right there, Will and Jem exchanged funny looks. Minato smiled at the news. Tessa was happy for them. Henry's joy was contagious. He rolled Charlotte around like a waltz around the dining room and back, before standing up suddenly, horrified, thinking that those screams could be bad for the baby, and he sat her down in the nearest chair.

"Henry, I'm totally capable of walking," Charlotte replied indignantly. "Even to dance"

"My darling, you're indisposed! You should stay in bed for the next eight months ... the little Buford ..."

"I will not call Buford our child, I do not care if it was your father's name, if it is a traditional Yorkshire name ..." she replied exasperated, but a knock at the door interrupted her, and Cyril peeked out of her disheveled head.

The servant contemplated the curious scene of joy.

"Mr. Branwell, there is someone here who wants to see you all," he said hesitantly.

Henry blinked.

"Does anyone want to see us, but it's a private dinner, I have not heard the bell ring ..."

"No, it's a nephilim," Cyril explained. "And he says it's very important, he can not wait"

Henry and Charlotte exchanged puzzled looks.

"Well, very well" said the man finally. "What happens, but tell him he'll have to be quick"

Cyril disappeared. Charlotte stood up, smoothed her dress and smoothed her ruffled hair.

"Maybe aunt Callida?" She ventured insecurely. "I can not imagine who else ..."

The door opened again and Cyril entered, followed by a girl of about fifteen. She wore a black traveling cloak over a green dress. Minato observed the girl in detail, remembering very well who she was. He recognized her by the black hair, the violet blue eyes, the elegant curve of the white neck, the delicate angles of the features, the gesture of the mouth ...

He heard Will exhale with sudden violence.

"Hi," the girl greeted, with a surprisingly sweet and surprisingly firm voice. "I apologize for interrupting dinner, but I did not have anywhere else to go, I'm Cecily Herondale, you see. I've come to receive training as a shadowhunter.

* * *

 **All right. We see many things happen in this chapter; the truth of Benedict was revealed, Tessa and Jem were getting married, and Will's sister appeared.**

 **I was thinking of putting Jack Frost on the scene of the robotic beetle attack, but I decided to put Uriel in great contrast between all the Council's nephilims. In addition, I decided to put Benedict alive; possibly die or study it as an insect by the Silent Brothers.**

 **Another thing: in the trilogy of Infernal Devices, Tessa has a love triangle with Will and Jem, while Minato is a harem in the Persona universe; which would be seen in the Victorian era as taboo.**

 **What if; Jem Carstairs will be cured of his illness.**

 **They say that they liked this chapter.**

 **See you in the next one!**


	12. Chapter 12

**We come back from this incredible story that you like! Enjoy!**

 **Neither of the two franchises belongs to me: each belongs to its own author.**

* * *

Minato was dressed in a black, gold-trimmed waistcoat over a gold shirt, pants the same color of the golden embroidery, and black leather shoes. It was the first time I would attend a wedding, but not a human wedding, but a shadowhunter wedding.

Henry had explained that the shadowhunters were dressed in gold for marriage instead of the black color for the groom and the white for the bride: but the black color was for when they went out to hunt and white was for dueling. It was very interesting that shadowhunters had a sense of culture very different from that of modern humans.

He remembered in the compartment of the train to Yorkshire the conversation that Will said: the custom is to give the girl the family ring when she commits herself, and receive runes instead of rings. One on the arm and another on the heart; paragraphs taken from _the Song of Songs._

All the marriages took place in the Alicante Agreement Room, but the Council was still looking for some hidden automatons in Westminster Abbey and in all the secret areas where they met; Including to debate if it was possible or not to invade the secret base of Mortmain. So they had to celebrate marriage in the Institute, being the godfather, which surprised him deeply. He was going to be a sponsor for the first time in his life. There were no words to say, just fell silent and nodded.

Since then; all began to prepare for the wedding, while Cecily was being trained by her brother; something that would keep him busy after tensing up because of his parabatai's commitment to the girl Will loved.

As for the appearance of Will's younger sister, Cecily Herondale, it was another surprise for the Institute. The girl had appeared before them in the dining room as a new guest of the Institute. Will did not stop commenting on his arrival, while she responded sarcastically that she had decided to become a shadowhunter, and that she also told him that she recognized him when they were in Ravenscare Manor, and that he had seen everything on the balcony secretly; Including the invocation of Thanatos and Titania. She recognized Tessa and Jem, and Minato, who made a comment if her hair was dyed, but Will replied that it was natural; Making the girl raise an eyebrow and look bewildered, she replied that she had seen him summon the two beings he had seen.

The place where the ceremony would take place would be in the ballroom; a large place where many guests can fit, and the perfect place for the wedding. Walking down the hall, he had met Jem, who was perfectly healthy; whose addiction to the drug of yin fen had been cured by the spell Posumudi after having revealed the news of the marriage and the arrival of Cecily to the Institute.

Jem wore a black uniform with golden bands on the cuffs and golden runes embossed on the collar and lapels. His appearance had been changing when the spell was applied; His eyes turned silver, to dark brown, while rows of dark brown appeared in his hair. He smiled with joy when he saw Minato.

"Minato, you're fine with your new suit!" he said optimistically in his voice, a characteristic feature of him.

The young man with blue hair nodded.

"I see you decided to leave your room to walk the corridor, right?" He pointed to his mp3 headphones, receiving another nod.

"And you?" Minato asked him.

"I'm going to look for Charlotte who is in Tessa's room, along with the seamstress who is fixing her, we have another guest"

Minato raised his eyebrows and cocked his head.

"Gabriel Lightwood has come here"

That surprised him.

"I was also surprised at his appearance, but he was very melancholy when he arrived, I can assume he decided to come to where his brother was.

He nodded and followed him. While they were walking, Jem was talking to him.

"By the way, I want to be very grateful that you came to us in times of greater anguish, I know I congratulated you before, but I do it again." This disease was a curse that I had when I was little, after Yanlou. parents, I was condemned to die, but when I was transferred to the Institute in London, my spirits had risen: I knew Will and the rest of the others, including Tessa, who had been my beacon of life and hope. skill never seen before, your presence has brought hope to the Institute, and that is why I am very happy that you are my wedding sponsor. " He smiled at her from behind. "It must be very strange for you that young people commit themselves at such an early age, right?"

Minato nodded. He knew that young people between fifteen and sixteen years old should have been studying in schools to become professionals in their adult years. Most wealthy families marry their children at an early age in adolescence to make political alliances with others. In the case of shadow hunters, it is different.

"The highest priority of a shadow hunter is to maintain the supernatural balance of any demonic threat," Minato told him directly, calmly.

"Exactly," says Jem. "Shadowhunters are only dedicated to putting order in the underworld, our life is short, not like humans, we have never dedicated ourselves to having a job, we only dedicate ourselves to hunting demons, but being with the person you love the most is the moment With greater happiness that intoxicates you in your heart, that is why I decided to marry Tessa, and it is possible to hide it in your closet when you knock on the door, it is considered unfortunate to see the bride with her dress.

Minato blinked.

"I'm sorry for my curiosity," Jem told him, scratching his silver hair with strands of his original hair color. "Talking about the love I feel for Tessa made me laugh without wanting to," she laughed with shame.

Girlfriend.

Minato was never aware of having a girlfriend when he was in high school in his universe. He was always busier studying, resting, listening to music from his mp3 player, and having his personal space in silence. The only girls who had spent time with him were Yukari, Fuuka, Mitsuru, Aigis and Elizabeth, but only with the aim of making friends, and also to relax a little. The only girl who proved to be in love with him was the Velvet Room attendant, Elizabeth, who taught her her world, and then she kissed him in the park at night, while the second was Mitsuru. Maybe Aigis and Yukari too, but he did not know.

Tell Jem that the girls in his world who were attracted to him would be complicated. In addition to that, he spent time having an intimate encounter with a girl in a world that only exists between dream and matter, and that he also had with the leader of SEES. Too complicated to explain.

He just shrugged in response.

"I consider it something more or less, it does not matter, you have to enjoy this moment, Minato, December is a beautiful month for a wedding"

He nodded. He remembered the last moments of his life with his friends enjoying Christmas; either by being in the Paulownia shopping center touring the stores or touring the city. Not forgetting that it was that month that Ryoji revealed the true identity and the arrival of Nyx next year.

When he reached the door that led to Tessa's room, Jem raised his hand and touched the surface.

"I'm Jem, can I pass?" said this one, but he saw that he would not have it. He chuckled. "It seems they're trying to hide it." He grabbed the puppy and turned it over; Revealing the interior of the room. Charlotte was there with the seamstress, while in the closet she was half open. "Oh, Charlotte, we have another new guest"

"Another guest?" She replied, bewildered. After her belly began to grow, Charlotte began to wear tea dresses, fitted above the waist and loose by this, with what looked like a bird. "Who?"

"Gideon's younger brother, I took him to the room to wait, he wants to talk to you"

"Gabriel? I'm going there," she said, taking a step toward the door.

"Yeah. And besides; i know Tessa is hiding in the closet, but that does not matter," Jem replied, following the step behind Charlotte, along with Minato.

* * *

Gabriel Lightwood was sitting in the chair with a melancholy air. His hair was disheveled and his face helpless, with both hands joined, pressing hard and with his eyes fixed on the ground. The magic light of the candelabra moved, forming small shadows.

Charlotte was at her desk, along with Minato on the left, and with Jem on the right; his eyes were fixed on Benedict Lightwood's youngest son.

"Jem told me you wanted to talk to me, what's wrong?" Charlotte asked, her voice hospitable and soft.

"I ... i ..." Gabriel hesitated to speak, his tone was melancholy and low. It was direct: "I decided to leave the mansion and stay with my brother"

The three were surprised.

"Gabriel ... why did you do it?" Charlotte told him, intrigued.

"I did ... because i ... i was tired of living there," he said in a dry and annoyed voice. "The more I stayed, the more exhausted i felt, all these years as a child, believing that my father was an excellent person, but ... discovering the truth behind his dirty lies, I decided i needed a break from everything. i chose to go to the Institute, the place where my brother is, and i also want to apologize for how rude I have been with my attitude toward you in the past "

Minato understood the pain Gabriel Ligthwood felt when he learned the crude truth of Benedict's fetishism and lies. I got it, like Charlotte and Jem, whose faces were worried about Gideon's younger brother.

"We know you acted because you did not know anything about your father's secret, Gabriel," Jem told him, encouraging him. "It's a mistake we all make"

"We invite you to move with us," Charlotte replied in a condescending tone; "Your brother would be happy to have you by his side"

Gabriel smiled cheerfully.

"Thank you"

"What about the mansion?" Minato asked, after a few seconds of silence.

"Let my sister and her husband take care of her," Gabriel replied with a grimace on his lips. "What i care about is being close to my brother"

"I understand perfectly, Gabriel." Charlotte rose from her chair, her hand on her belly. "Come on, i'll tell Sophie to find you clothes for the wedding"

Gabriel raised an eyebrow, confused, but nodded politely, while the four left the room and closed the door.

* * *

"Write to them, Will" said Cecily Herondale. "Please, just one letter"

Will pulled back his black hair, drenched in sweat, and looked at her angrily.

"Put your feet in position" was all he said. He pointed with the tip of the dagger. "There and there"

Cecily sighed and shifted her feet. I already knew that I was not in position; had been doing it to chop it. It was easy to cut it. She did remember when Will was twelve years old. Even then, challenging him to do something, such as climbing the sloping roof of his mansion, had led to the same thing; a furious blue flame in his eyes, his jaw tense and, sometimes in the end, Will with a broken leg or arm.

Of course, that brother, the almost adult Will, was not the brother he remembered as a child. He had become more explosive and more reserved. He had the beauty of his mother and all the stubbornness of his father, and it was feared that he had also inherited from the latter the propensity for vices, although that was only expected from some murmurs of the occupants of the Institute.

"Lift the knife," Will ordered. His voice was as cold and professional as a governess's.

Cecily picked it up. It had taken him a while to get used to feeling the combat suit against his skin: the loose tunic, the trousers, and the belt that encircled his waist. But now she was moving dressed like that as easily as she had done with baggy nightgowns.

"I do not understand why you do not even want to think about writing them a letter, a single letter"

"And I do not understand why you even want to think about going home," Will replied. "If you agree to return to Yorkshire, you will stop worrying about our parents and we could fix it ..."

She interrupted him; I had already heard that speech several times.

"What do you think of a bet, Will?"

She was happy and a little disappointed to see that her brother's eyes were bright, as were his father's when a gentleman's bet was suggested. The men were so predictable ...

"What kind of bet?" He took a step forward. He wore a combat suit; Cecily saw the runes around her wrists and the mnemosyne rune in her neck. It had taken him a long time to stop seeing the runes as something disfiguring, but he had become accustomed to them, as he had become accustomed to the combat suit, to the solid resonating walls of the Institute and its peculiar inhabitants. Especially the young man with blue hair.

Pointed to the wall in front of them. There was an old black bullseye painted on it: a large circle around a black dot.

"If I give it to the center three times, you'll have to write a letter to mom and dad and tell them how you are doing, explain to them about the curse and why you left."

The expression on Will's face became imperturbable, as it always did when he asked.

"You will never give him three times in a row, Cecy," he replied.

"Well, then you will not mind betting, William." She used her full name on purpose, she knew it bothered her if she said it, although when her best friend ... no, her parabatai (since her arrival at the Institute, she knew there were two of them). She seemed to consider it a sign of affection, probably because he still remembered her running awkwardly behind him on her plump little legs and calling him "Will, Will" in a panting welshman. William had called him, only Will or his welsh name, Gwilym.

He narrowed his eyes, those dark blue eyes the same color as hers. When his mother said with affection that, as an old woman, Will would be a heartbreaker, Cecily had always looked at her without believing it. At that moment, Will was all arms and legs, skinny, disheveled and always dirty. However, he saw that his mother was right; she had seen it the first time she had entered the Institute's dining room, when he stood up surprised and thought: _'That can not be Will'_

He had put those eyes on her, her mother's eyes, and she had seen them charged with rage. I had not been happy to see her at all. And although in his memory there was a skinny boy with a lock of black hair, like that of a gypsy, and with sheets on his clothes, at that moment he saw a tall and disturbing man. The words he had meant had melted into his tongue, and he had challenged her with his eyes. And so it had been since then, with Will struggling to endure his presence as if she were a stone in his shoe, a minor but constant annoyance.

Cecily took a deep breath, lifted her chin and prepared to throw the first knife. Will did not know, nor would he ever know, the hours she had spent in that room, alone, practicing, learning to balance the weight of the knife in her hand, discovering that a good pitch started from behind the body. First, lowered both arms, and then raised the right, behind the head, before throwing it forward, accompanied by the weight of the body. The tip of the knife was in line with the objective. She released him and threw her hand back, stifling a scream.

The tip of the knife got stuck in the wall, right in the center of the lens.

"One," Cecily said, throwing her brother a superior look.

He looked at her impassively, ripped the knife from the wall and handed it to her.

She threw it again. The second launch, like the first one, flew directly towards the target and stayed there, vibrating like a mocking finger.

"Two," Cecily said in a sepulchral tone.

Will gritted his teeth as he tore off the knife and handed it to him. She caught him smiling. She felt confidence flow through her veins like new blood. I knew I could do it. Had always been able to climb as high as Will, run so fast, hold his breath at the same time ...

Threw the knife. Trapped in the center of the target, Cecily jumped in the air, applauded and let himself be carried for a moment by the emotion of victory. Her hair came loose from the hairpins and fell on her face; she pushed him away and smiled at Will.

"Now he will have to write the letter, he has accepted the bet!

He surprised her smiling.

"Oh, I'll write it," he agreed. "I'll write it and then throw it into the fire." He raised a hand to stop the girl's outrage. "I said I would write it, not that I would send it"

Cecily stifled a scream.

"How dare you fool me like that?"

"I already told you that you do not have wood as a shadowhunter, or I would not have deceived you so easily, I will not send you a letter, Cecy, it is against the law, and there is nothing else to discuss"

"As if you really care about the Law ...!" Cecily kicked the ground and immediately became angry more than ever; I hated the girls who kicked.

Will looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"And it does not matter if you are a shadowhunter or not, what do you think of this? I will write you a letter and give it to you if you promise to take it home personally and not return"

Cecily backed away. Had many memories of shouting with Will, of the porcelain dolls he had had and that he had broken by throwing them from the attic window, but he also had good memories: the brother who had bandaged a cut on his knee, or had tied the tapes of her hair when they had come loose. But that kindness was absent in the Will that was before her at that moment. His mother had been crying for a year or two after he left; she had told him, while he was hugging her, that the shadowhunters "would take the love from within." Cold people, she had told Cecily, people who had forbidden her to marry her husband. Why would your Will, your little one, want to be with them?

"I will not leave," she said, looking at her brother. "And if you keep insisting that I do, I'll go and ..."

The attic door opened, and Minato was seen entering the training room; He had the same expression he always wore, and with his golden clothes.

"What brings you here, Glas?" Will greeted him with a smile. "That dress is not an act to train, but it suits you very well"

"Jem asked me to look for you, soon the wedding will be and Gabriel Lightwood will stay at the Institute"

"A moment." Will stopped him, surprised. "Did you say that Gabriel Lightwood will move with us? When did that happen?"

Minato shrugged.

"Jem was the first to recognize him when he was finishing his suit, Gabriel decided to leave the mansion and move to where his brother was"

Will sighed deeply, while running a hand across his forehead. He let out a tired moan.

"For the Angel! First my sister, and now Gabriel Lightwood stay with us. This day could not be great ... At least her sister noisy will not visit us" made a gesture vaguely with the hand. "Tell him we'll be ready"

Cecily watched as the blue haired teen nodded as he left the training room, closing the door behind them. It was the first time he could see the young man with blue hair he had seen on the balcony of his room. Minato Arisato. That was the name of the young man. His features were what caught his attention: his rebellious blue hair that covered his left fringe, his blue eyes like the sea, and his quiet and reserved expression, like that of a silent lake. Cecily had thought she had dyed her hair, but Will showed it was natural. Also asked about the two beings invoked: the fairy in the green velvet dress and the being with wing-shaped coffins, but Will told her again that it was difficult for her to understand him; since she needed to be instructed first in combat, and then she would be instructed in the knowledge of the supernatural underworld. The interactions that Minato did were reserved, but educated with her.

Then there was Jem, Will's parabatai, who treated her with the distant, sweet kindness reserved for the little sisters of friends, but he always sided with Will. With kindness, but equal firmness, Jem put Will above anything else.

Cecily had been very impressed with Jem when she arrived at the Institute; He had a strange and ghostly beauty, like Minato, but Jem had silver hair and eyes and very delicate features. He looked like the prince of a fairy tale and Minato would be a gentleman of the court. Cecily had considered the possibility of establishing some kind of relationship with him if it had not been entirely obvious that he was hopelessly in love with Tessa Gray. He followed her with his eyes wherever he went, and changed his voice when he spoke with her. Once, Cecily heard her mother make fun of him, saying that one of the children of the neighbors looked at a girl as if she were "the only star in the sky", and that's how Jem looked at Tessa. But there was also the possibility of establishing a relationship with Minato Arisato, it was worth trying.

As for Tessa: he was kind and kind to her, though a little shy, and with his nose always stuck in a book, like Will. If that was the kind of girl that Jem wanted, he and she were not made for each other, but it was not their decision to judge them. They had every right to get married.

"Well, Cecy," Will began, after finishing complaining, "it's better that we hurry to finish these practices quickly, i do not want to miss the wedding at all"

* * *

Sophie held the tray with one hand, with the ease of prolonged practice, as she banged Gideon Lightwood's door with the other.

She heard a quick touch and the door opened. This one was in pants, suspenders and a white shirt rolled up to the elbow. His hands were wet, as if he had just run his fingers through his hair, which was also wet. Sophie's heart leaped to her chest before calming down. She forced herself to look at him with a frown.

"Mr. Lightwood," she said, "I've brought you the cupcakes you ordered, and Bridget has also prepared a tray of sandwiches for you"

He took a step back to let her enter the room. It was like all the rooms of the Institute: heavy and dark furniture, a large four-poster bed, a large fireplace and tall windows, which in this case faced the courtyard. She straightened and turned to him, her hands crossed in front of her apron.

"Sophie ..." began.

"Mr. Ligthwood," she interrupted. "Do you need anything else?"

He looked at her half angry, half sad.

"I'd like you to call me Gideon"

"I already told you, I can not call you by your name"

"I'm a shadowhunter; i do not have a first name, Sophie, please." He took a step toward her. "Before coming to reside in the Institute, i thought we were making friends, but since the day i arrived, you have been very cold with me"

Without realizing it, Sophie put her hand to her face. He remembered the young Teddy, the son of his old lord, and the horrible way he had cornered her in the dark corners; he pressed her against the wall and put his hand under her bodice, whispering in her ear that it was better if she was affectionate with him if he knew what was best for him. That memory caused nausea, even after so much time.

"Sophie." Gideon's eyes wrinkled in the corners, worried. "What's wrong with you? If I've done something inappropriate, I've rejected you in some way, tell me what it is, please, so I can make amends ..."

"There is nothing inappropriate, not despicable, you are a gentleman and I am a maid, another thing would be a familiarity, please do not make me feel uncomfortable, mr. Lightwood"

Gideon, who had half raised his hand, dropped it. He seemed so bewildered that Sophie's heart softened.

"I have everything to lose, and he, nothing," she reminded herself. That was said in the night, lying on his narrow bed, with the memory of a pair of eyes the color of storms rondándole by the head.

"I thought we were friends," he said.

"I can not be your friend"

Gideon took a step toward her.

"What if I asked you ...?"

"Your brother has come to stay at the Institute"

Gideon's jaw remained open, with a surprised expression.

"M-My brother? Gabriel came?"

"Yes, mrs. Branwell told me the news about the arrival of her brother, she left the Chiswick mansion and decided to stay at the Institute to be with you, mr. Lightwood," the maid explained, trying to respond formally without hesitation. .

Gideon was surprised by the information described by the maid. Since deciding to live in the Institute with the Branwells, Gideon had been solemn about his younger brother's absence from being left alone in the mansion, after the father of the two was captured by Wayland's orders for his act of betrayal. to help Mortmain as a scapegoat. his younger brother had decided to stay at the mansion so he would not feel abandoned, where there should be a Lightwood, but Lightwood's name had been tainted by the lies of his father.

Now, hearing that Gabriel had decided to be with him, that left him speechless. He was very happy that his brother had acquired the option of being with his blood brother. He was very proud.

"It's better to dress for the wedding, mr. Lightwood," Sophie had said, her tone half shy. "He will be in the ballroom, with the others."

Gideon nodded.

"Yes, I will do it"

* * *

On that same night the wedding had taken place.

It was the first time Minato had seen the Institute's grand ballroom. The large windows reflected the moonlight, and projected a golden glow on the ground. The magical light from the chandeliers bathed the marble tiles with brilliance. On the walls there were decorations with gold and red ribbons, decorated with gold-colored runes. There were four tables with their respective chairs; each one with golden velvet covers and colored plates with utensils in order.

In the center of the room were men on the left side and women on the right side. Jem had a cheerful face, his eyes fixed on the living room doors, waiting for the bride. Will was dressed in a gold jacket with black embroidery on a white shirt, and his hair disheveled. Gideon wore a black shirt and pants, as did his younger brother, Gabriel. Charlotte and Cecily were dressed in gold lace satins with whitish bows. Minato observed that Sophie was standing in a corner, in her servant attire and her hands together; avoiding looking at Gideon Lightwood.

The doors opened, and from them, Henry was garbed in a green and orange striped vest, holding the bride's arm. Tessa wore a silk dress of dark golden color, as was customary among shadow hunters. The tight body was edged with Brussels lace, which also ran through the sleeves. The corset with the shape of the hourglass, the molded and rounded, where I'm supposed to do it, and the mechanical angel and the jade pendant that has given the pendant neck. The girl's face has become serene, but her shyness has not been hidden, nor has the little blush that ran down her cheeks. On his left arm he wore a gold bracelet.

Everyone in the room has been surprised by the elegant dress she was wearing, especially Jem and Will.

Walking across the crimson carpet, Henry handed the bride to Jem, who smiled happily and returned to where the men were, standing next to Gabriel Lightwood.

Minato could see that Tessa's face flashed many emotions, including despair and discomfort; life is rounded off in his expression at the right time, or rather, not in marrying Jem, but looking more over his gray eyes. Minato deduced that Tessa loved him a lot in his heart and was in love with him, but she also has feelings towards Will Herondale; his other platonic love. He understood the problematic situation that went through Tessa, but there was no going back.

The boyfriend and girlfriend stood facing each other; with their eyes intertwined, on a pearly arch and decorated with golden and red roses, which connect between two doors of immaculate white.

"Knowing that it would not be too late for a Silent Brother to perform the engagement ceremony," replied Charlotte, gaining everyone's attention, "i decided it was better to let our newest guest click on the honors"

The eyes of all of them have been stuck in the young man with blue hair, something that Minato himself had and had known.

Pulling out his Evoker, Minato thought about which Persona he was going to be a summon. Since a wedding was locked in the union between two lovers, lived in a place of action or was represented in the union, he realized that it was a marriage between the man and the blood of an angel. of higher rank of archangel. The guardian of the tree of life and the patron saint for having two lovers join in the Book of Tobit.

He triggered the trigger. The smoke took the form of an angel in dark blue armor with shoulder pads and a white silk mantle embroidered with gold crosses on the right shoulder and a golden rope that bears the belt around his waist. Its two wings keep blooming in the air, fluttering like the wings of a dove. Holding the hilt of a sword firmly with the right hand. His blond hair was on the tip and the indigo blue of his eyes were deep.

The summoned archangel flew to the top where the boyfriends were and raised his sword in the air. His appearance was majestic.

"I am the archangel Raphael, one of the seven in the presence of the Lord and the holy healer! It has been perfect for the master to sanctify in marriage with these two men who carry the heavenly blood of my brother, just as Once I did it with Tobias and Sara! Are the couple ready to recite the words of commitment?"

The two nodded. Cecily's eyes were wide and petrified, as were the Lightwood brothers.

"Then you can recite it," replied the archangel Raphael in an angelic and authoritative tone.

The boyfriends looked at each other: Jem's dark brown eyes with Tessa's gray eyes. Both recited the words in unison, as if it were a choir in a church.

"Write me as a seal on your heart, as a mark on your arm; for love is strong as death; cruel jealousy as the grave" Finished reciting the words, Jem took out his wake that was stored in his pants pocket and he drew a picture of a black tribal mark on Tessa's bracelet, and it was engraved on it like a tattoo. Then it was Jem's turn; He lifted the dark sleeve from the left side of his arm, and proceeded to place the rune on his shoulder.

Now they were married.

"With the heavenly runes engraved as a sign of unity, now your are one, may the grace of the Lord divine sanctify this union for the rest of the centuries! that your mission to protect humanity from the threat of the supernatural can be instructed with wisdom to the rest of the new generations of nephilims! By the power of my father, and by my presence in this sacred site, i, the archangel Raphael, declare this wedding approved by my representation of being the emissary of the Kingdom of Heaven and by the grace of my father! Your can enjoy peace!" Raphael declared after disappearing in a smoke.

Taking advantage of the happiness that ran through his body, Jem kissed Tessa's lips with deep love. Those present applauded with joy. Everyone was happy for the newlyweds.

They sat in their respective chairs and served their food; baked chicken dipped in sauce, a lettuce salad with vegetables, potatoes sewn with grilled ribs, and champagne and wine. Everything was appetizing. Before they could stick the forks into the food, Charlotte got up and touched her glass with orange juice with her fork; making the call for a toast for the married. She congratulated them and let out a few tears of happiness; then it was Henry's turn, and then Will's, until they reached Minato, who was surprised and stood up.

Minato did not know what to say. He had never made a speech at a wedding before, only a few when his friends were in the Dark Hour. He maintained his calm attitude, and continued to express his words to the newlyweds.

"It's the first time I've made a speech like this at a wedding, but I can say that I congratulate Jem and Tessa for being married, we know we've been through shady times, as Charlotte had said, but we stood our ground, all together as a family. It's all I can say about these words"

Everyone applauded. Will also made another toast.

"Wow, your speech was flattering, but a bit short, yet it's like Charlotte and Minato said, we all went through dramatic moments in our lives during our investigations, but we stayed together like a real family, and that's why I want to toast for all. For the wedding of Jem and Tessa! For the arrival of new guests! For the arrival of another guest! And especially for Minato Arisato! Without your appearance, we would all be in a race against time looking for Mortmain, Jem would continue with his illness and there would be more drama like in the novels, which I want to make a toast for you! For Minato Arisato! "

"For Minato Arisato!" Everyone raised their voices with their glasses up.

Minato remained silent, and then smiled. A smile of happiness. He knew that his involvement in the supernatural world of the shadowhunters had taken a turn in every life of the members of the London Institute. All showed an air of emotion; all of which were elevated by the arrival of the Messiah.

* * *

 **Do not forget to leave a comment on this chapter.**

 **In the third book, Gabriel arrived at the Institute wounded by the fight with his father transformed into a demon worm, and all shadowhunters of the Institute of London went to the Lightwood mansion to kill him, which ends with the death of the son-in-law of the Lightwood brothers during your visit to the mansion. But this was changed.**

 **As for the bracelet that Tessa wears at the wedding, they will see; if a sahdowhunter marries a downworlder, he would not support the marriage union rune, which would take any object to put it. In the case of Tessa, it is different; since the dark ink of a rune sinks into her skin, which she wears a bracelet**

 **See you next time!**


	13. Chapter 13

**After a long time writing this chapter, we return to this entertaining story that you have liked so much.**

 **In addition, I saw the trailer of Persona 5 Royal, and I was amazed to see the Persona game again, but this time with a new female protagonist and new scenarios, let alone that Morgana has a human form.**

 **By the way; Magnus Bane is bisexual in the shadowhunters saga, and has an attraction for blue-eyed men, get an idea with his eyes focused on Minato.**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Cecily was where she had been earlier that day, with a knife in her right hand. Pointed, threw back his arm and threw the knife. Stuck himself in the wall, just outside the circle drawn.

The first time she had seen with her own eyes the power of invocation of Minato left her stunned. Never before had he seen something so crazy and suicidal as stick a gun to his temple and summon an archangel from the bible while pulling the trigger. Now everything was for her. At last he had seen the young man with blue hair summon those two beings in Ravenscare Manor. Will had told him that the two beings he saw were the fairy queen Titania that appeared in _A Night's Dream in Summer_ and Thanatos himself in greek mythology made her even more surprised, including when he told her he could summon heroes or ancient gods ; something more or less what his brother answered him.

When Will told him that Tessa and Sophie had received combat instructions from Scathach herself, the mythical martial arts warrior and the instructor of the hero Cu Chulainn, Cecily had decided to train enough to be a warrior like her; even if at one point Minato could summon him and have her give him one of his advice.

After retrieving the knife, raised it to shoulder height and launched it again. This time she dug even farther from the circle, which made her snort angrily.

"Uffern nef!" she mumbled in welsh. His mother would have been horrified, but, of course, his mother was not there.

"Five," said a voice from the hallway outside.

Cecily turned around, startled. There was a shadow in the doorway, a shadow that, as it moved forward, became Gabriel Lightwood, all wild brown hair and green eyes as sharp as glass. He was as tall as Will, or maybe more, and more lanky than his brother.

"I do not understand what you mean, mr. Lightwood"

"His shot," he clarified with an elegant arm movement. "I give him five points. His skill and his technique may require work, but without doubt there is an innate talent, what he needs is practice."

"Will has been training me," she clarified as he approached.

Gabriel raised the corner of his mouth in a half smile.

"What I said"

"I guess you would do better"

He stopped and tore the knife from the wall. It flashed as it twirled between his fingers.

"Could" he replied. "Trained me the best, and I've been training miss Collins and miss Carstairs. Under the supervision of the real Scathach ..."

"I heard that, Will told me when he trained me. I plan to become the same as she" Cecily kept her voice cold; he knew that his brother did not like him, and the arrogance of his voice was annoying.

Gabriel touched the tip of the knife with the tip of his finger. There was a red drop of blood. He had calloused fingers, and the backs of his hands were sprinkled with freckles.

"I see that the combat suit suits him very well," he observed.

"Thanks." Cecily looked him up and down. "I see you do not"

For a moment, a strange expression crossed his face. Then she disappeared, but she had seen her brother hide the emotions often enough to recognize the signs.

"I do not have clothes here," he explained, "and that would not be a problem. The only thing that matters is where I am now."

"You decided to leave to stay at the Institute" Cecily asked, reading her face. "And what does Charlotte say?"

"She told me i could stay." Gabriel's face changed for a moment; he showed a sudden vulnerability where before there was only hardness. "My brother is here"

"Yes," Cecily corroborated. "Mine too"

Gabriel stopped for a moment, almost as if that had not occurred to him.

"Will" he said. "He looks a lot like you ... it's ... disconcerting" He shook his head, as if he wanted to tear off the cobwebs. "But i see that that's normal between the brothers"

"Not at all," she replied, as she took the knife from Gabriel's hand, almost without her exclamation of surprise. "Now watch how he gave the center, something I did when I humiliated Will"

"I'll see that perfectly," Gabriel replied with an arrogant smile as he crossed his arms.

* * *

The door opened, and Gideon appeared in the doorway of his bedroom, blinking as if he had been in a dark place for a long time and had just seen the light. The pants and shirt were wrinkled, and one of the straps, fallen.

"Mr. Lightwood?" Sophie said, hesitating in the doorway. She carried a tray in her hands with the cupcakes and tea, heavy enough to be uncomfortable. "Bridget told me she had ordered a tray ..."

"Yes, of course, yes, come in." As she woke up suddenly, Gideon straightened and led her through. His boots were forgotten in a corner. The entire room lacked its customary neatness. There were combat clothes on a high-backed chair (Sophie shrugged inside thinking how it would be upholstered), a half-eaten apple on the bedside table and, lying in the middle of the bed, was Gabriel Lightwood, sound asleep. The two had kept the suits borrowed after the wedding had been over for two days.

No doubt he wore his brother's clothes, because it was too short on his wrists and ankles. Asleep he looked younger, without the usual tension in his face. With one hand he grabbed a pillow, as if to be sure.

"I could not wake him up," Gideon justified, clutching his elbows unconsciously. "I should have taken him to his room, but ..." He sighed. "I have not seen myself capable"

"Are you sure your brother is willing to stay at the Institute?" the maid asked, leaving the tray on the bedside table.

"Yes. Charlotte told you he was welcome." Gideon smiled very slightly.

"Mrs. Branwell is a very kind woman," the maid responded with optimism.

"And that's why I'm very happy, he apologized for being rude the first time he was here when I was in Madrid, that the incident like my father is a thing of the past. I finally saw his hidden side when he said the true "added Gideon very dry.

"Do not you think he was affected a lot by his father's lies?" Sophie brushed a strand of hair that had escaped her cap.

"It affected him a lot, in the past he had idolized our father, but knowing his dirty truth left him very upset, he had felt only when I left the mansion, he wanted to come with us, but he did not want everyone to they knew about our problem with our father, and that is why he decided to stay with him. Now, knowing he had nothing else to do, he decided it was better to be close to his brother, then he fell asleep after cutting everything off." Gideon sighed, and then looked at Gabriel with a mixture of affection, exasperation and grief, which made Sophie's heart beat with compassion.

"Your sister ..." began this one.

"Oh, Tatiana and her husband, Rupert Blackthorn, can stay in that mansion. I can imagine their surprise when they find out about everything that happened, my sister and Gabriel do not have much love, since Tatiana thinks she has a very superior intelligence, but it is conceited and superficial, the only important thing is that Gabriel has chosen well to stay in the Institute"

"You feel you have to protect him," Sophie observed.

"Of course, he is my younger brother." He went to the bed and handed Gbariel a hand for the ruffled hair; the boy moved and made a noise of restlessness, but he did not wake up.

"I still think that he is very tired because of everything that had happened, it is not his fault for having believed the lies of his father, he was only a child at the time, he must surely be questioning his last name"

"I do not blame him, I did it too when I was in Madrid" Gideon moved away from the bed.

Sophie lowered her head.

"I'm sorry," he confessed. "I'm sorry about his father, whatever they say about him, or what he did, it was his father"

He turned to she.

"But, Sophie ..."

She did not correct him for using his first name.

"I know he did deplorable things," she added. "But, anyway, you should cry; no one can take away the pain, it's yours and no one else's"

He brushed her cheek lightly with the tips of his fingers.

"Do you know that your name means _wisdom_? They put it very well"

Sophie swallowed.

"Mr. Lightwood ..."

But he had spread his hand over her cheek and was leaning down to kiss her.

"Sophie," he whispered, and then their lips met, in a slight brush that increased in pressure as he leaned over. Gently and delicately, she put her hands (so rough, worn from scrubbing and carrying, rubbing grids, dusting and polishing) on her shoulders.

Then she approached him; He stumbled over the carpet and in his fall he dragged Gideon, who tried to hold her down. Sophie's face caught fire with shame; God, he could think that she had made him fall on purpose, that she was some kind of crazy little bitch looking for passion. The cap had come loose, and the dark curls collapsed on her face. Under it, the carpet was white, and Gideon, on top of it, was whispering his name, worried. Sophie turned her head to the side, her cheeks still hot, and found herself looking under the bed.

"Mr. Lightwood," she said as she stood leaning on her elbows. "What's under your bed are cupcakes?"

Gideon froze, blinking, like a rabbit cornered by hounds.

"What?"

"There." Sophie pointed to the piled-up dark shapes under the bed. "There's a real mountain of cupcakes under your bed, what's wrong?"

Gideon sat down and rubbed his messy hair while Sophie pulled away from him, amidst a rustle of skirts.

"Eh ..."

"You has ordered those cakes, almost every day, he has asked for them, mr. Lightwood, why does he do it if he does not want them?"

Gideon's cheeks darkened with flush.

"It was the only thing that occurred to me to see you, you did not want to talk to me, you did not want to listen to me when I spoke to you ..."

"So he lied?" Sophie stood up after picking up the cap. "Do you have any idea of all the work I have, mr. Lightwood? Charge the coal and hot water, dust, polish, clean after you and the others; and I do not care or complain, but how dare you give me extra work, make me carry heavy trays up and down the stairs, just to bring you something you do not want?"

Gideon stood up, his clothes even more wrinkled.

"Forgive me" he lamented. "I had not thought of it"

"No," Sophie said, furiously tucking her hair under her cap. "People like you never do, right?"

And he left the room, leaving the man staring at her sadly.

"Very well done, brother" Gabriel said from the bed, looking at him with sleepy eyes.

Gideon threw him a cake.

* * *

"Henry" Charlotte crossed the crypt. The torches of magic light shone with such force that it almost seemed like it was daylight, although she knew it was almost midnight. Henry was hunched over the largest of the large wooden tables that covered the center of the room. Something hateful was burning in a flask at another table, and it blew out a great whiff of lavender smoke, different from the dark blue smoke when Minato's Persona disappeared. A huge piece of paper, the kind the butchers used to wrap the products, was spread out on Henry's desk, and he was covering it with all kinds of mysterious figures and calculations, mumbling to himself as he wrote. "Henry, darling, are not you exhausted? You've been down here for hours"

He flinched and looked up, then raised the glasses he wore to work.

"Charlotte!" He seemed astonished, though delighted, to see her; only Henry, Charlotte thought wryly, would be perplexed to see his own wife at home. "My angel! What are you doing down here, it's very cold, it can not be good for the baby"

Charlotte started scolding, but she did not lend when Henry ran to her and gave her an affectionate hug. Since Henry knew they were going to have a child, he had been treating her like fine porcelain. At that moment he kissed the top of her head and pulled her away to look at her face.

"The truth is that you look a little sick, maybe instead of dinner you should have Sophie take a reconstituent stew of meat to your room, do not you think I'll go and ..."

"Henry, it's been hours since we decided not to have dinner, everyone has brought sandwiches to the room, we're all having a few minutes of relaxation after Tessa and Jem's wedding."

"Sandwiches?" asked Henry, who seemed to have grasped that as the central part of what Charlotte was saying, and seemed hopeful.

Charlotte smiled.

"You have a few upstairs, Henry, if you can get away from your job for a while, I guess I should not scold you, but what are you working on?"

"A portal," Henry answered animatedly. "A form of transport, something that can take a shadowhunter from one point of the globe to another in a matter of seconds. Mortmain's rings gave me the idea"

Charlotte looked at him surprised.

"But, undoubtedly, Mortmain's rings employ black magic ..."

"But not this, Oh, and there's something else, come, it's for Buford."

The woman let her husband take her by the wrist and take her to the other end of the room.

"I've told you hundreds of times, Henry, no son of mine will be named Buford, for the Angel! Is that a cradle?"

Henry smiled from ear to ear.

"It's better than a crib!" he announced, while opening his arm to point out the wooden bed and robust appearance, which hung between two sticks to be able to rock from one side to the other. Charlotte had to admit to herself that it was a very nice piece of furniture. "It's a crib that moves by itself!"

"What?" Charlotte asked in a low voice.

"Look." Proud, Henry took a step forward and squeezed some kind of invisible spring. The cradle began to rock gently from side to side.

Charlotte exhaled, relieved.

"It's very pretty, darling"

"You like?" Henry smiled pleased. "Knowing that the universe where Minato came from was very advanced in technology, so I had to blow my imagination to create this for the child ... Look, now it rocks a little faster" It was true, but it did it with a somewhat syncopated movement , which gave Charlotte the feeling of being adrift in the middle of a curly sea.

"Hum," she finally exclaimed. "Henry, I want to talk to you about something, something important"

"More important than the achievement that our baby rocks gently every night to fall asleep?"

"The Clave has decided to release Jessamine," Charlotte explained. "She's going back to the Institute, in two days."

Henry turned to her with a look of disbelief. Behind him, the cradle was swinging even faster.

"Will he come back here?"

"Henry, he has nowhere else to go"

The man opened his mouth to answer, but before any words came up, there was a horrible noise of something breaking, and the cradle broke loose from the sticks and flew around the room until it crashed against the back wall, where it exploded in chips.

Charlotte gasped as she raised her hand to cover her mouth. Henry frowned.

"Maybe with some design improvements ..."

"No, Henry," Charlotte said firmly.

"But..."

"Under no circumstances" Charlotte's voice cut like a dagger.

The sigh.

"Very good darling"

* * *

Minato was in the Velvet Room with Igor in front, explaining in a hoarse voice his performance in the world of shadowhunters in the victorian era.

"I see that everything is going well for today, Minato," he explained, congratulating him. "It seems that the trust between the nephilim has increased more and more, leaving the uncertainty that loomed over them. Congratulations, but the calm during the inevitable storm. The problems that were solved back will happen again. I am suggesting that you be more attentive to what is to come. The shadowhunters will soon be up to their own regard to the marriage between miss Gray and mr Carstairs has taken a great turn in their lives. destiny, but miss Gray's love bond with mr. Herondale intensifies bond that has united them in the past becomes increasingly stable and unstable at the same time, but their destinies are written in. Only the Great Will you will know what is to come. I hope you are aware of the causalities that are to come, good luck"

That was all Igor had said after leaving the Velvet Room. His own stay at the Institute had changed the lives of his residents, but he barely had to deal with the consequences of his intermission in this universe that he was in. He knew he could not deal with some events that are to come after the victorian era, and he knew that very well. There would be times when humanity would be in hardship during the technological increase. Especially the uprising of the First World War, which would occur around twenty years and the Second War after the First. There were times when the human being was an unbridled animal, which was normal in his behavior.

In addition, Elizabeth had decided to accompany him for an hour in her room, since she had a time without leaving the Velvet Room. The only memory he had of the assistant coming out for the first time was in his world, when he taught it how it was outside, whereas in the Victorian era it was different; the industrialization of the machinery is barely in its heyday, they were all conservative with their appearances, and no woman could go alone through the streets without the company of a man. That was what was lived in Victorian London.

She was surprised, but she did not care; I just wanted to know a new era in the history of humanity, including if it was from another universe.

The assistant was in his lap, with his head on his chest, in contact with his short platinum hair and pale soft skin. Her assistant's dress made her look very beautiful against her lap. Elizabeth ran her bare fingers over his left shoulder.

"At least I can see what your room is like," she had responded in a sweet and soft voice, observing every detail of the room where she was. "It's not the same as your school, but you can get used to it," she said, looking at him intensely. His golden eyes shone like two bright orbs, with a touch of desire in them. She had approached inches from his face, being very close. Then, he fitted his thin lips with his. The taste of his lips was generous and warm; making him remember the moment he shared with her his first kiss in the park in the light of the moon.

The attendant slept on her lap all night, until, in the morning, when Minato got up to get dressed, she kissed him on the lips as a farewell and gave him advice to keep an eye on the following causalities. They were going to happen, and then she disappeared from her bed. Minato decided to keep up with what was going to happen; he should not lower his guard down for a moment. The wedding was just a stage of relaxation that everyone enjoyed, the worst would come later.

Minato came down the stairs and met everyone in the dining room. Gabriel and Gideon were there, including Henry and his wife Charlotte. Cecily had placed herself at the far end of the table and was reading a book while she ate. Henry had said good morning to Minato, while sitting next to Will, who made a sarcastic comment that Tessa and Jem must be very "tired". Minato looked at him with a blank look and ate his breakfast without asking a question. The sounds of footsteps were heard in the corridor, where the two newlyweds entered the dining room.

"Good morning" Jem had said normally.

"You look good, Jemmy" Charlotte commented, delighted.

Jemmy. Minato did not pay attention to the comment that the director of the Institute had said. Everyone was very happy that Jem had been cured of the disease that made him sick. Their state of health had encouraged them all when he regained his original hair color little by little; an aspect of the old Jem when he was a child and lived with his parents in the Institute of Shanghai.

Minato observed that Tessa had her eyes on Will, but he tried not to see her; the tension between the two was very uncomfortable, especially Tessa, who was tense being close to Will. The two pretended not to see each other while they sat in front of them, but that made it even more difficult.

"I'm much better" replied Jem, with a smile. "I've never felt so better since the disease was gone, now my hair is regaining its original color"

"I'm glad that it causes you happiness" replied Henry with a cheerful tone.

"That's right" He went to serve a cup of tea for himself and Tessa. When he was filling his glasses, Bridget's voice floated from the kitchen.

 _The wind blows cold today, my love,_

 _Cold are the raindrops;_

 _The first love I had,_

 _Dead was in the green forest._

 _I will do so much for my beloved_

 _As any young man should;_

 _I'll sit crying next to the grave_

 _For twelve months and one day._

"By the Angel, how depressing is this girl!" Henry exclaimed, as he left the newspaper right on top of his plate, so that its edges were soaked in egg yolk. Charlotte opened her mouth as if to scold him, but closed it again. "Everything is broken hearts, deaths and unrequited love"

"Well, that's what most of the songs are about," said Will. "Besides, we have already had Ryoji as the representative of death, unrequited love is ideal, but it does not do much for a ballad"

Jem looked up, but before he could say anything, a great reverberation resounded through the Institute. Minato did not understand what it was, but all eyes turned to Charlotte, as if their heads were held by springs.

This one, startled, left the fork.

"Oh, dear," he exclaimed. "There's something I had to tell you all, but ..."

"Mrs?" It was Sophie, coming into the room with a tray in her hand. Minato noticed that the maid avoided Gideon's gaze, but her cheeks flushed. No wonder there was another love problem in the Institute. "Consul Wayland is come and asks to speak with you"

Charlotte picked up the folded paper from the tray, looked at it and sighed.

"Very good, tell him to come up"

Sophie disappeared in a swirl of skirts.

"Charlotte?" Henry looked puzzled. "What's going on?"

"That." Will let his silverware resonate against the plate. "The Consul interrupting our breakfast? What will come next? Having tea with the Inquisitor? Picnics with the Silent Brothers?"

"Duck pies in the park," Jem taunted, and Will and he smiled, just a moment before the door opened and the Consul came in.

Consul Wayland was a large man, with a proud chest and strong arms. His tunic always seemed to hang a bit odd on his broad shoulders. He had a blond beard like a Viking, and at that moment his expression was serious.

"Charlotte" said without preamble, "I'm here to talk about the situation with Mortmain"

The atmosphere of the dining room became tense; It was to be expected that this topic be discussed.

"What did they finally achieve?" Charlotte responded, anxious.

"Seeing the evidence of Benedict's betrayal and the infiltration of his machines, I and my colleagues in the Council have debated the possibility of launching a raid into Wales, the place where he is hiding." The mention of Wales shocked Cecily. Wayland continued: "But to make such an incursion could be Mortmain himself, and that is why I came to request the help of Minato Arisato"

The blue haired youth blinked, confused.

"What?" Charlotte said, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Do you want Minato ...?"

"Yes," Wayland said affirmatively, who looked at Minato with pleading eyes, then stopped where the Lightwood brothers were. "Gabriel, did you decide to live with your brother?"

"Of course I did, Consul," Gabriel said in a polite tone.

"I understand," nodded Consul Wayland.

"Josiah." Charlotte spoke. "I know we know where Mortmain is, but we can not risk making a move for Mortmain, at least they did something about the location where we met."

"I hired Ragnor Fell to put an enchantment in the Pyx Chamber in case of another infiltration," Wayland assured him. "The information of the new automatons that Benedict gave us favored us"

"Speaking of him," Gabriel commented dryly. "What happened?"

"Well ... let's say the disease has started to affect him enough. The Silent Brothers had to calm him down, the infection had begun to spread, affecting him psychologically. The Brother Enoch explained to me that the disease was changing him completely ... "

"Demonic pox" Will answered with satisfaction.

"How?"

"A disease that Will had always said if it existed," Charlotte commented with a sigh. "It means that Benedict to ..."

"Indeed" said Consul Josiah Wayland. "Knowing that there was no cure for the infection, and with the risk that he could get out of control, it was decided that it was better to give him a quick death, and that the Angel judge his soul"

"He deserved it anyway," Gabriel said with his arms crossed. "He deserved that punishment for his lies"

"I understand, but going back to the subject of Mortmain and its location, I think it's time for young Arisato to help us in this situation."

"And what would happen when they reach lake Llyn Mwyngil and fall into a trap with many automata? What if Mortmain look for another hiding place?" Charlotte explained with anguish in her voice.

Wayland raised his hand to calm him down.

"We have already taken those measures. The only place where Mortmain would go to hide would be in the old home of his parents, which we asked Fell to protect the Herondale family"

Cecily and Will were pleased and calm to learn that Wayland had taken steps to protect his parents.

"Charlotte, I know that you are very concerned about the welfare of your guest, but we can not take another attack from Mortmain, in desperate situations you need desperate measures, and you all witnessed his power, the ability to summon two Angels of God and a hero escotish. Think it over, Charlotte, the young Arisato is our only option to end this threat that hangs over us, after all, it was he who helped us in knowing Mortmain's hatred towards us and the miss Gray's hidden secret"

All eyes focused on him, as if it were a rare object. Minato stayed where he was without showing any surprise; assuming that this day would come. His intervention in the world of shadowhunters in London had raised curiosity and encouragement among them, including with members of the Institute of London, who welcomed him as their new member, something that had reminded him when he joined SEES for the first time. The shadowhunters of the Institute of London were happy with his presence; the past of Mortmain and Tessa were discovered, the Institute was to fall into the hands of Benedict Lightwood but he was able to tell the truth and cure the deadly disease of Jem; all that thanks to him. Now, he had to fulfill the part of his mission; stop Axel Mortmain and prevent him from obtaining any information about the Multiverse of the Great Will.

Then, everything would end. His mission would be done, and he would return to the Great Seal, since, after all, it was a fragment of his soul that was in the Great Seal. Victorian London was an amazing time, but it could not stay there. It was not his time, and he knew what would be the next events that would happen in the coming years. The shadowhunters were there, to protect humanity from this universe against the demons of other dimensions and the Makai. This humanity was protected by them, and it was not necessary for Minato to intervene.

The young man with blue hair saw that Consul's eyes, and of all the limbs, were fixed on him like statues of ceramics; waiting for a decision

He decided to speak with his calm and calm voice.

"I agree with Wayland Consul, Mortmain, is just a man who is obsessed with avenging the death of his adoptive parents, using the automatons of his parents as a means to carry out his desire. devise several plans to act on their behalf: use Jessamine and Benedict Lightwood as his spies, but now he has no one except his automatons, he will do anything to attack the shadowhunters and kidnap Tessa, and he will not stop until. He has already done a lot of damage to us, and it's time to pay for the damage." Minato directed the Consul a serious and direct look through his blue eyes. "I agree to go with you to face Mortmain"

Consul Wayland smiled in wonder, as did the members of the Institute, with faces of happiness. Minato could feel inside how the bonds he had forged with each of the shadowhunters began to grow. He felt how the determination of shadowhunters emanated throughout his being, increased his strength and willingness to fight, something he had felt when he faced Avatar Nyx to end the Fall. They would not be disappointed.

"I'm glad you accepted my most sincere proposal" Consul Wayland inclined his head politely, with a look of satisfaction. His gaze focused on the new image of Jem, who left him bewildered. "By the Angel, your eyes and your state have returned to normal!"

"Yes," Jem smiled optimistically. "Minato has cured me of my illness, i have already recovered my old state," he said, clasping his hand with his fiancée's.

"I see" Wayland laughed. "I see that the young Arisato has done enough to be very helpful with you"

"He has always been" Charlotte had said. "Minato was of great help to us in the Institute, and I also agree, Mortmain deserves to be brought before the justice of the Law of the Clave"

"Like me" Will commented with a smile at their corners. "It's time for Mortmain to pay his crime"

Gabriel and Gideon agreed with the statement; Mortmain had manipulated his father to be his puppet and to be his dog. Cecily also agreed; his parents had moved to Ravenscare Manor as a chess move for his sinister plan to use them as hostages and bait. Mortmain deserved to have severe punishment for his crimes.

"I am very happy that you all understand this situation"

"When will the raid on Wales begin?" Henry asked, curious.

"Soon, I will order some plans with the Council, and then I will send a telegram that is ready," said Consul Wayland.

"We'll be very attentive," Charlotte said, nodding.

Wayland was going to walk where she came, accompanied by the maid, but turned her head towards Charlotte.

"Have you already told them the news?"

Charlotte shook her head.

"No, but now I'm about to tell you," she explained hesitantly. The residents were confused.

"I understand," replied Consul Wayland, as he walked toward the dining room door, with the maid behind him. When he was gone, all eyes were fixed on the director of the Institute.

"Charlotte" Jem began to say. "What was the news that the Consul was speaking?"

The woman felt uncomfortable in an instant. She looked at her husband, who nodded with melancholy. She let out a sigh of regret.

"The news that the Consul was talking about ... was that they released Jessamine from the Silent City ... she comes here in a day"

A tense, ghostly silence permeated the dining room. The faces of the residents were somber and stunned. Cecily did not know anything, but judging by her expressions, she could deduce that she was a former resident of the Institute. Minato was not startled by the news; it was to be expected that the causality would come into effect, something that kept attentive to Igor's warnings.

"Jessamine," Will said dryly, still stunned. "Charlotte ... do not tell me she's going to stay with us"

"Will ..." Charlotte began, reassuring him. "I know what she did is unforgivable, but if you only understood ..."

"Understand exactly what? Forgive her for betraying us betrayed ?! Please, Charlotte, she does not deserve to be forgiven!" He replied with a frown.

"I know, I know," she explained. "I know what Jessamine did is an act that does not deserve to be forgiven, but she regretted what she had done, knew that she was used as a puppet by Nathaniel for her own purposes, including altered a bit. he had fallen, the Council has decided that Jessamine has been forgiven for his betrayal, while Nathaniel will be in Idris prison with the rest of the criminals"

"That still does not fit me," Will replied angrily.

"Calm down, Will," reassured his parabatai. "Jessamine has deserved the punishment she has deserved for betraying us ..."

"But..."

"She did it because she felt upset about being a shadowhunter and not a mundane," Jem justified. "Jessamine wanted to live a normal life without being in the business of hunting demons, and that's why Nathaniel seduced her to be his spy, played with her with the intention that he stayed faithful, and she did it without thinking. Since she knew the truth about her position as a pawn in Mortmain's game, she had no choice but to repent and be forgiven for her actions, come on, Will, do not get like that. "

Will scoffed, but then nodded, cursing softly in welsh. Jem scratched his head and sighed wearily. Gabriel and Gideon looked at each other worriedly, but said nothing, as did the rest of the breakfast.

Minato knew very well that Igor's warning was being fulfilled, and he had a slight sense that calamities would appear when Jessamine arrived.

* * *

Everyone was gathered at the entrance of the Institute with the doors open to the outside. The tense atmosphere felt in the air, and in every face of the residents. The news that Jessamine was going to arrive in no time made the uncertainty increase further. Minato had his Evoker in his waist, ready to use it in the next causality.

He watched as the carriage of the Silent Brothers entered through the gate, followed by a second carriage. Minato did not like what was happening. He prepared his Persona from each Arcana for what was to come.

The vehicle stopped at the foot of the stairs. Minato noticed that Charlotte was moving restlessly behind Tessa.

"Another carriage?" she said, confused, with a direct look at the second carriage, black and unshielded, which she gave in silence after the first.

"An escort" suggested Gabriel. "Maybe the Silent Brothers are afraid that he will try to escape"

Minato gripped the Evoker's hand tightly. It was not an escort. He grimaced.

"No," Charlotte countered, her voice full of wonder. "Jessamine does not ..."

The Silent Brother who was driving the first vehicle left the reins, went down and went to the door. At that moment, the second carriage stopped behind him, and the Silent Brother turned around. Minato could not see his expression, because his face was hidden by the hood, but something in the position of his body indicated surprise. He frowned; there was something strange about the horses that were dragging the second vehicle: their bodies shone, but not like the fur of animals, but like metal, and their movements were too fluid to be natural.

Seeing that it was a new attack, he triggered the trigger, and the fog became Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, the irish hero of the Feniano Cycle. Minato made a gesture to attack the automaton dressed as Silent Brother, and he fulfilled his request. His Person swung the Gáe Derg spear and slashed at the center of his head and threw him into his chariot with force, causing the vehicle to be hit and topple to the left side, including with the robotic horses.

Charlotte shouted for everyone to come out and defend the carriage. Henry and Will, who brandished their seraphim knives, went to the carriage of the Silent Brothers. They opened the door and pulled Jessamine and the Silent Brother out. Jessamine wore a white dress, her face fearful and her blond hair cut short. They were taken inside the Institute to take shelter, while Gideon, Gabriel and Jem went outside. The Lightwood brothers each carried their own seraphim knife and Jem his staff.

The door of the second carriage that was turned over was fired by a mechanical kick, and out of them came five automatons and a figure covered in a black habit. Gloves, equally black, covered his hands, and black boots. A snow-white face surrounded by the folds of the black hood that made him see very little of his image, but when he looked up at the nephilim, he pulled the hood down, revealing a decomposed face of greenish skin, eyes Injected with black veins and drooping lips that did not hide his gray tongue.

The horrified expressions of Tessa, Will and Jem formed on their faces. It was impossible what they saw.

"Well, well," replied Mrs. Black with a smile on her lips. "It seems that we see each other again"

"No," Will said half-speaking, stunned. "It can not be possible..."

"It's impossible," Jem had said, having the same expression as his parabatai. "You had..."

"... dead?" Mrs. Black finished with a sardonic voice. "Well ... let's say that Mortmain brought me back to life as a sign of your generosity in giving me a second chance to take revenge on you and capture her," she said, pointing to Tessa, Will and Jem. Mrs. Black set her eyes on Minato, who smiled in a sinister way. "So you're the japanese warlock that miss Lovelace talked to us about, right? I find it very surprising and weird that a warlock like you works with those rubbish. Your invocation ability would make it a lot easier for Mortmain and his cause, why? do not you join?"

Minato frowned at him in response and a grunt.

"I'll take that as an opposite" Mrs. Black unbuttoned the neck of the cape, falling to the ground and leaving a great impression of horror in the residents of the Institute. It had no body, only a smooth column of metal from which two arms, like articulated sticks, jutted out. The gray kid gloves that covered what had been the hands added a macabre touch.

Minato had seen things like that in horror movies, but seeing it in reality caused horror in the viewer, the faces of the nephilim was an example. Minato was firm, looked at his Persona, and made a gesture to finish with the automatons, which obeyed the orders of his invoker. Diarmuid cast the spell Ziodyne, and the automatons exploded by the electric shock, but Mrs. Black had evaded the spell.

Diarmuid launched himself into the attack. Mrs. Black dodged the lances of the spear, with excellent precision and agility. The shadowhunters watched with total fascination and astonishment on their faces as Mrs. Black evaded the spear point attacks of the Person of Minato; Diarmuid moved with all his care to hit a scratch, but his opponent was fast, difficult to hit with Gáe Derg.

Mrs. Black tried to attack Diarmuid, using his dagger-sharp fingers to scratch her face, but the Persona turned the spear in a defensive spinning motion and took a few steps back, as he took off with leaping footsteps. When Mrs. Black again counterattacked, Diarmuid seized the opportunity; He hit her in the waist with the butt of the spear, causing Mrs. Black to twist and lose the concentration of her mechanical body. Using it in his favor, Diarmuid spun like a top, and the sharp point of Gae Derg embedded itself in his belly. Mrs. Black let out a scream of pain and agony. With his enemy in the final stages of his defeat, Diarmuid raised his spear upward, with the tip of his spear embedded in his opponent's chest; he took impulse and threw it up.

They all watched with stunned faces; watching as Mrs. Black was ascending, and then descending, until a powerful electric plasma eliminated her with a bang in a single instant. The residents of the Institute posed their eyes on Diarmuid, who was satisfied with his face, while he was dancing with a few cartwheels, signifying his victory. He focused his eyes on Minato and the others; he bowed respectfully, then disappeared into a smoke.

"Well ... it seems that at last we will never see Mrs. Black again" had begun to say Will after being stunned by the fight he had seen.

"You're very right," Jem told him, with a moan. "We'd better go in and check on Jessamine." He directed a humorous look at the blue-haired teenager. "Once again we are in your debt"

Minato nodded without saying anything as they all entered the Institute, leaving behind the disorder of the battle.

* * *

 **Good; we have already seen for the first time the Black Lady, one of the antagonists of the first book, and the return of Jessamine to the Institute, without counting on the first appearance of Diarmuid; who this one appeared in Majin Tensei ll: Spiral Nemesis. Further; Jessamine died in the attack on the Institute and Tessa was kidnapped, but all that was changed.**

 **Leave a comment that you liked this chapter!**

 **See you in the next one!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Here bring your the next chapter of this story that you are so fond of. Also, I want to thank the readers for their constructive criticism of the story, thank you very much.**

 **We start now!**

* * *

After the failed attempt to attack the Institute, residents had gathered in the room in a tense air permeating the environment. The Silent Brothers had left safely, leaving Jessamine in charge of the director Charlotte Branwell. The girl survived, that was the relief; like the Silent Brothers. No one was hurt, and all thanks to the reaction that Minato had when he realized the attempt to kidnap Tessa and kill the rest of the shadowhunters of the London Institute.

Jessamine stood with her head down and arms crossed, not looking at any of the residents. Minato understood that the girl felt shame for having aligned with Mortmain in being his informant; she had chosen that path to lead a life without being a shadowhunter and to be living with Nathaniel Gray as his wife, but her opportunity came against her: Nathaniel is in prison and she is on probation; without a husband, without a normal life, and without a place to go.

Alone.

Now she was in the Institute: the place where she had been adopted by the Branwells couple when she was a child. In front of the people who considered her part of the family.

"Jessamine," Charlotte had begun, breaking the silence. "Knowing that the Council has given you a second chance so that you could live with us in the Institute, I hope that your stay in the Silent City has made you reconsider the decisions you have made," she said in a firm and firm voice. "Do you have some things that you want to tell us about?"

Jessamine remained silent, without even looking around; where the residents present looked at her like crows. Minato maintained his neutral position without getting involved in the matter; Will kept his arms and frowning. Henry showed uncertainty and compassion; Jem was next to his wife, Tessa, with their hands clasped and waiting expressions. The Lightwood brothers and Cecily felt uncomfortable being present at Charlotte's meeting regarding Jessamine's arrival; especially Gabriel and Gideon; who knew her for missing several hours of training and who always went to council meetings reluctantly.

The air was uncomfortable and tense; difficult to breathe or release a word.

But everything changed when Jessamine raised her face directly to Charlotte: sad, despairing, guilty and repentant; those were the traits that were embodied in the face of Jessamine.

"I ... i mean ..." Speech was half-hearted in a tone of regret, "I ... i'm sorry" She choked for a moment, then continued: "I want to apologize for betraying them and selling information for Mortmain, i did it because I wanted to be Nathaniel and have a normal life together ... but it turned out that everything had been a hoax" she swallowed. "The words of love ... his feelings towards me ... including our wedding ... all for nothing, he used me as if he were a dog. Tessa was right in what he said about him"

Charlotte nodded.

"I see that at last you have reconsidered the actions of your fit ones" the director replied firmly and seriously. "Jessamine, you treason has left us impressed and bewildered ... How could you do that to us, Jessie! I gave you a home that you could stay in! You were like our daughter! A part of our family!" Charlotte calmed down in a minute after releasing a great exasperation inside she. "Jessamine, Henry and I were distressed when we found out, we were both sad, we knew that you never wanted to be a shadowhunter, just like your parents did when they decided not to accept the obligation to hunt demons, and that was what led them to exile and your adoption. We gave you a home where you could stay, love, and also a new family Henry and I loved you as if you were our daughter. You could have died when the automatons attacked the Institute, but Minato decided to act fast to protect us you and us, and that's what I'm happy that you're alive and safe"

Jessamine put both hands on her face; sobbing at the words Charlotte had said with how painful it was. Minato felt sorry for the girl, knowing that she made bad decisions to seek a new life away from the shadowhunters, and that led her to ruin her own life. Charlotte had approached her, and embraced her like a mother who comforted her son when he was hurt. The scene was uncomfortable for others, but at the same time it was compassionate and reflective.

The two separated when they both stopped crying. Henry consoled his wife by placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, comforting her so that she was calm.

"Thank you, Charlotte," Jessamine said, running her hands over to dry the tears on her cheeks. "I am sorry for having betrayed you, and I regret having done that to you, I promise that I will never do it again, and also, I want to ask Minato for saving my life.

Minato accepted the compliment with a nod.

Jessamine continued:

"And there is also something else I wanted to tell you" the residents were listening to what he was going to say. "It's about Nathaniel. Besides having used me, he had a secret that only Mortmain explained to him regarding the fraternity with Tessa, and that he is not his biological brother"

Everyone was amazed, including Tessa.

"So, was it true that you said that Nathaniel was not Tessa's brother?" Will asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Jessamine said with assent. "Nathaniel was never the son of Tessa's mother, but the sister of the mundane baby they exchanged, Harriet Moore"

Tessa was shocked by the revelation. In his memories, she always saw his aunt worried about the two after the death of her mother and father in the accident of the carriage. She and Nathaniel had always had an identical resemblance, something she did not pay attention to, but knowing the truth, now everything made sense to her. He remembered seeing her in his dreams when he enchanted Jem to fall into a dream when his virginity was consummated; since Tessa became very nervous. She saw in his dream how his aunt was sad when they mentioned Nathaniel; blaming himself for failing him. That made him shrink, it would speed his heart.

"Nathaniel ... is the son of my aunt Harriet" she commented, with both hands in her mouth in prayer, stunned. "How can that be possible?"

"He explained that she was committed to a man she loved, but she died in an accident, leaving her alone and pregnant before her wedding. It was Tessa's mother who took charge to prevent her from falling into shame at having consummated the marriage before getting married. Tessa's mother cared for Nathaniel as if she were his son over the years without anyone knowing the truth of his birth"

All the residents were surprised by the information said by Jessamine. At least one other loose end had already been fixed.

"He killed aunt Harriet when he handed her the box full of chocolates with poison as a token of his hatred for she" Tessa commented in a tense voice. Jem put his hand on her right shoulder, and pulled her to him so that she felt comfortable in his presence.

Will had a deviant look, avoiding shuddering because his friend was fond of his wife. Even being married, the feelings that Will processed by Tessa was strong, that Minato could see clearly: a very uncomfortable situation for someone who loved the girl that his best friend had married.

"The good thing is that it solved another mystery that we were thinking" responded Charlotte with a sigh, while rubbing her temple. She looked at the guests. "Do you think you can forgive her?"

They hesitated, uncomfortable with the response the director had said. Forgiving someone for betraying them was something that was difficult to answer.

"If you forgive her for being very moody, she does not like to be a shadowhunter, she prefers to marry a mundane and see us burn for Mortmain's mechanical army ..." Will had said with his usual sarcasm. "... Yes, no, he already deserved his punishment using the Mortal Sword, being imprisoned in the Silent City, and besides being married in a false marriage ceremony orchestrated by Tessa's half-brother to use you as he pleases"

"You're a despicable welshman, Will," Jessamine replied morosely to Will, who laughed without caring.

"I'm also in favor of what Will said," Jem replied with a smile. Tessa had hesitated, but accepted, as did the Lightwood brothers and Cecily. Minato simply shrugged.

"... because no" he had said in a neutral and calm voice.

"That means that our savior approves the motion," Will said with a laugh.

* * *

The next day, after Jessamine was able to join the Institute, Charlotte Branwell had received a letter from the Council that Sophie had brought her after she had finished breakfast; when it opened, his heart accelerated rapidly and his eyes widened. Everyone in the dining room looked at her worriedly. Henry told his wife what he was saying, and she had responded in a calm voice.

"It's the Consul, and he says the Council approved the invasion where Mortmain is found." She swallowed hard. "And he wants us to be ready to go with them"

They all looked surprised, but they nodded. The time to stop Mortmain had arrived.

Knowing that it would be a mission with no return, the members of the Institute put on their shadowhunter uniforms; those who would stay were Charlotte and Jessamine; The latter had complained because she wanted to go with them, but Will scolded her for not going and staying, but anyway she insisted more firmly, and Will reluctantly agreed. Tessa on the other hand if I went with them; his training in using his powers from his demonic side was going to be of help to others when it came to dealing with automata. The Lightwood brothers agreed to go with them; because Mortmain had used the father of the two brothers as his toy puppet. Henry was also going to the raid; as one of the representatives of the Enclave Institute of England it was his duty to be present at the activities of the Clave.

Minato was given a sword with runes carried by the shadowhunters. The material of his blade was composed of a celestial metal called adamas that was given to the shadowhunters by Raziel to eliminate the demons and other supernatural creatures. Being of celestial origin, a leaf of adamas is able to cut the metal; that was what Jem had told him during his stay at the Institute.

Being dressed as night, and with both arms in each case, Minato had left his room, and proceeded to meet the others outside the Institute. Upon arriving, he observed that everyone was ready: Tessa, Will, Jem, Cecily and the Lightwood brothers were dressed in their shadowhunter outfits, bidding farewell to the two women who were going to be under protection.

"Very good," said Henry. "It's time to do our work"

"Take care please, Henry," Charlotte said, putting her hand affectionately on her husband's cheek.

"I'll do it, baby, we'll be back unharmed ... more or less"

That said, Minato rode beside the driver, with his hat on top so that passersby would not notice his blue hair. Henry also rode by his side, because the interior was filled by the occupants.

When everything was ready, Cyril pulled the reins, and the horses set off. Henry made a gesture of dismissal to his wife while the Institute was staying behind as the carriage with the two horses began to move quickly through the pavement of the crowded streets.

Everyone was nervous about what would happen when they arrived in Wales; They had already faced the automata repeatedly, but they did not know if they would meet an army waiting for them in their lair; ready to attack the shadowhunters when the fight began. That was the anguish they had, but it was not the time to complain, but to act and end the threat of Mortmain at once.

* * *

It was a long journey when they entered the Highway of the Great North. The sun was still in the sky full of white clouds as they passed through Islington, Holloway and Highgate; the carriage had overtaken a few peddlers with their wagons and a pedestrian or two, but there had not been many more who were going to delay them, and since the horses did not get tired like ordinary horses, the carriage of the Institute had soon reached Barnet and had been able to gallop through South Mimms and London Colney.

The carriage had bordered Saint Albans, then reached Watling Street, the old roman road that was divided at that time in Wroxeter; one branch that went towards Scotland and the other crossed England to the port of Holyhead, in Wales. In his mind, Minato could hear his Persona, Ryoji, telling him the influx of ghosts of ancient romans centurions and celtic who were walking around, and also told him that they were talking about the last resistance of Boadicea's troops, to which the romans had defeated on that road many years before.

Going through the roads where historical events had taken place was very interesting for Minato; Exploring other parts of England was a journey through history, and also served to learn a little more about the areas. The only trip he had experienced in his universe was the trip to Kyoto that he paid for Mitsuru to enjoy a day of rest after fighting the Shadows.

The journey along the road in a straight line was very fast when they left behind the inns and cabins, until, when they entered the next road, they spotted a convoy of twenty-five carriages that went in a single line; with the horses trotting down the dirt road, and the initials of the Clave engraved on the doors: they had finally found the shadowhunters.

The convoy of shadowhunters ran as if they were one; as if it were a pack of black panthers running towards their target. Further on, they managed to locate the huge mountain of Cadair Idris; a wall of raised rocks that gave shape to a wall. That view was something very magnificent from Minato's point of view. The convoy crossed the town of Dolgelau as they left the Dina Mawddey road and galloped towards the mountain, leaving the Welsh town behind. They had followed by a mountain lake full of seaweed, with the silver sea visible in daylight in one direction and Snowdon Peak in the other, towards the valley of Nat Cadair.

The carriages of the Clave arrived beyond a detachment of huge crags, which the inhabitants called the moraine. They formed a partial wall that protected Cwn Cau, a small valley at the top of the mountain, in whose heart was Llyn Cau, a glacial lake, and there, it was where there was an amount of about fifty-seven automatons. The carriages stopped in their tracks when they saw the mechanical army who was waiting for them.

"It seems that the welcome reception was no longer waiting" Cyril replied in a humorous tone.

"That seems, Cyril," Henry said with a frown, watching the automatons, still as statues. "I think Mortmain already knew very well that we were going to arrive at his lair, and it seems he decided to deploy his mechanical soldiers." He got down from his seat and landed on the grass floor, who also got off Minato and Cyril. The carriage door opened, and from there came Tessa, Will, Jem, Cecily, and the Lightwood brothers.

Will whistled.

"The welcome wildcard"

"I would not say it like that," Jem told his parabatai, observing the automata that were standing still doing nothing. Each of the mechanical beings had different sizes: some medium and others tall; covered with chrome, cables, and some smooth faces, like the hands that held long-bladed swords. Each and every one in a firm position, as if they were soldiers waiting for the orders of their captain.

The doors of the carriages opened one by one: the amount of shadowhunters covered with the color of perpetual night; each carrying swords, spears, axes, katanas, and other instruments of ancient use that served in medieval times. Minato spotted the Consul Wayland, who carried an ax in his hands, and Inquisitor Whitelaw, with a sword in his hand. He could also observe that Aloysius Starkweather himself had come, with a sword and dress in his shadowhunter uniform; whose cold, fiery gaze of hatred was centered on automata, something that drew Minato's attention: Is he possibly aware of the truth about Tessa? That would be possible.

The Consul Josiah Wayland and Inquisitor Whitelaw took the lead, followed by the shadowhunters behind, as were the residents of the London Institute; walking slowly, without lowering the guard. Minato observed from behind that the drivers of the carriages had bows with arrows, just as Cyril had them; a strategy that served as a cover to prevent automata from leaving for the town.

The Consul and Inquisitor Whitelaw stopped at one meter; being facing the automata. During a moment of intense silence, the automatons parted in two rows, and the faces of the shadowhunters were shocked by what they saw: Axel Mortmain walked calmly as a squadron captain did, with his cane at hand in a coat astrakhan on the gray suit, accompanied by the right side by an automaton dressed in a military tunic and pants. The clothes made the head that was raised on the stiff neck even more disturbing, with its features too thin and the metallic skull without hair. And the ones that Minato knew were made of glass and glass, with red irises in the sunlight, stuck in him in a very strange way.

Mortmain and the automaton stopped in front; with his eyes fixed on the shadowhunters. He showed a dark countenance.

"My friends, it is a warm welcome that you are here!" replied Mortmain in a jovial tone with sarcasm in his voice. "And believe me, it's an honor to meet you in person, Consul Wayland."

The Consul let out a grunt of annoyance.

"Stop playing, Mortmain!" he shouted, going straight. "We have already suffered a lot because of your incursions in search of revenge, it's time to take you before the Law"

"The Law" he said with venom and mockery. "Your ridiculous Law is nothing more than a simple outlandish way to mount order in a subjugated way against the rights of others. You, believing you have every right to impose your absurd authority on downworlders for the sake of your so-called _Law_ to balance the balance, they are just stupid and corrupt idiots. My parents, who welcomed me as their son, were murdered in cold blood for their stupid Law. But, in any case, you must already know the purpose of my plans and of miss Gray, right?"

"As clear as water," said Inquisitor Whitelaw, holding his weapon firmly.

"It was to be supposed that that blue-haired warlock had shown you the secret of my plans, and I doubt it came with you." Mortmain looked like an owl to the shadowhunters who were gathered behind the Consul and the Inquisitor. An evil smile was drawn in their corners: "And I see that young man has come, along with the rest of the residents of the Institute of London, including the Lightwood brothers, the sister of the Herondale, and, of course, miss Gray"

Minato walked among the shadowhunters; who were doing their part to make it happen, as did the residents of the Institute. Minato faced the vengeful man who resented the nephilim: he was middle-aged, with graying sideburns, narrow features, hair covered with white threads and light gray, which flashed a cold and calculating brightness.

"Well, it seems that I can finally meet him for the first time, Minato Arisato, the blue-haired japanese warlock who appeared out of nowhere to help the shadowhunters of the London Institute to fight against my creations, through a unique power of summoning historical characters and divine beings just by shooting yourself with your gun miss Lovelace has told me every detail of your ability, and I must say that I was very intrigued, and at the same time fascinating, and I see that we meet again miss Gray"

Tessa gave him a hard look.

"It's time for you to pay for what you've done"

Mortamain laughed with laughter, as did the automaton in military uniform, something that surprised them a lot.

"I see that you have gathered the courage and strength in your stay with the rest of the shadowhunters of the Institute, I am not surprised" Mortmain looked at Jem. "Mr. Carstairs, I see that you have finally recovered from your illness, and I doubt that you no longer need the use of yin fen, it's a relief that you are healed by mr. Arisato's help, right?"

"Indeed," Jem replied sarcastically.

"Very interesting, do not you think?" The Magister looked towards the automaton that was beside him, who laughed in an evil way.

"Of course he is, master" the automaton replied, amid a dark laugh. "I can not wait for the urge to use this body against the nephilim"

"Soon, Armaros, you have to have patience"

That made the shadowhunters very surprised; it was the first time they saw an automaton show moved expressions, something that had never been seen by the residents of the Institute of London; except Minato, since the only robot with facial expressions was Aigis. As for the name of the automaton, the archangels of his mind began to complain: that name belonged to one of the two hundred angels who revealed themselves in Heaven.

"It surprises them, does not it?" commented Mortmain with a wicked and evil countenance. "Why does not he introduce you to our dear guests?"

"It will be an honor to do so. My name is Armaros" the metallic being showed up. "For a billion years I have ridden the winds of the great abysses between the worlds, I fought against Jonathan Shadowhunter in the plains of Brocelind. For a thousand years I remained trapped in the Pyxis, now my master has freed me, and I serve him. I am ready to fulfill my revenge"

The faces of the shadowhunters darkened with fear and surprise. Mortmain laughed at that.

"Ho-How can that be po-possible?" Inquisitor Whitelaw replied in stupor.

"Well ... I can tell you that it was a completely frustrating effort to make my new invention, but the fruitful efforts bear fruit" Mortmain's face was malignant. "You see, I had all the necessary components to carry out my work, but it turned out that I was missing a piece in the puzzle: a spell that only my father knew how to do it, that spell allowed me to join the energy of the demons with the body of the automatons, and that is why I sent Mrs. Black in search of miss Gray so that she could use the power of the Changed to transform into my father and could put together the missing piece.I looked into the study of alchemy in search of of a solution to do the spell, but it was useless, until I got something very peculiar, when I was doing another alchemical round, somehow I opened a tear when I was doing a spell, and from there, a kind of object appeared in the form of I did not know what the hell it was, but, that object turned out to be the most interesting material I've ever seen! As I managed to study the mysterious unknown matter, I discovered that the mysterious material could be interacted through my emotions; while I expressed myself, more the material managed to light up. And that's when I was able to achieve how to use it for my own benefit"

In the pocket of his trousers on the right side, Mortmain had removed a bronze chrome armlet with a crystal light bar with some buttons and a dark cable that is connected to a metal cap.

Minato was shocked: Mortmain had managed not only to obtain a Plume of Dusk, but had made an identical device to the Evoker with the same material that was used in summoning the Persona.

His greatest fear came true.

"I see that you were surprised with the contraption that I just showed you, do not you think, mr. Arisato?" Mortmain laughed. "All this is amusing to the information that miss Lovelace had given me regarding your summoning weapon, that is the idea of creating this." He showed the device so that everyone could see it. "With this, my greatest ambition could be fulfilled" Mortmain raised the sleeve of his right and placed it on his wrist while he tied it perfectly, and then put the circular object on his temple. Then he pressed the cuff button, making the Plume of Dusk glow like a flash. "Witness my greatest creation!"

Mortmain raised his hand with his armband, and a thick dark blue smoke was formed by a summoning circle, to take the shape of a Persona: sis features were identical to those of Mortmain, except that he had wavy hair, drawings of fang of black ink on both cheekbones, and eyes injected with blood. The astrakhan was a crimson red, loose, revealing a black vest with gold stripes, white pants and boots with black gloves. He has a jet stick and a gray padlocked beard.

Definitely, the Magister had been able to summon his Persona through his mad wit.

All shadowhunters were stunned, including the residents of the Institute, the Consul and the Inquisitor.

"... Impossible ..." Henry commented with a choked voice and wide eyes. "How...?"

"As I said before, the substance reacted through my emotions, and knowing that mr. Arisato had the same material in his instrument in the form of a weapon, then why not make an identical one, which I did by doing it. This neuronal transmitter in my temple, and at the push of a button, my invention paid off: the manifestation of my subconsciousness extracted from my new invoking invention, Dr. Victor, as my fragment of psyche is called, I could In order to complete the puzzle, and not only that, "his countenance flashed a dangerous glow," but it also served to unite all the automatons with demonic souls and unite them with my life. "He gestured to the Persona. "Activate Rakukaja"

The Persona nodded to his master's orders; he raised his staff upwards, and all the automatons blazed with flashes of purple light.

"As you can see, my dear guests," began Mortmain, "the spell I said increases the defenses of my automatons, including mine and Armaros, incredible, is not it?"

The faces of the shadowhunters were of fear and despair; the fight against the automatons with demonic souls was not going to be easy against the others who had fought the residents of the Institute of London.

Minato could not sit idly by; It was time to act immediately.

The young man with blue hair stepped forward.

"This ends here," he said with a firm voice and a look of determination; He triggered the trigger, and Thanatos formed from the smoke, whose appearance made the shadowhunters terrify.

"Magnificent!" replied Mortmain while applauding. "I'm amazed that for the first time I can see you invoking your fragment of psyche! I'm just amazed! And I can see in your expression that you're determined to stop me, right?"

"I'll do everything, Ryoji, use Rakukaja and Sukukaja." With a gesture of approval, the spells shone in each shadowhunter he encountered, including Minato.

"Well, it seems that the time of good talk to finished" Mortmain pointed them out. "Attacks!"

In a single instant, the automatons with demonic souls and shadowhunters collided with the sound of swords that could be heard with greater shudder that managed to impregnate the whole place: they blocked the attacks, they avoided being punctured by the sharp ends of the leaves of the automatons . The shadowhunters managed to evade the cuts of the metallic beings thanks to the spell of Sukukaja, which allowed them to dodge the attacks.

The residents of the Institute fought with great agility in the use of their movements with weapons, as did the Inquisitor Whitelaw against a two-meter automaton that used two swords: it blocked with fast movements the attack of the two blades, until he slashed the center of his head, and the automaton lay motionless on the floor, with a puddle of oil coming out, as if it were blood. Wayland managed to defeat two automatons, while the third unleashed all his fury on him, only to be split in half. Without realizing it, an automaton was coming at him with a sword in hand, but was shot down by his nephew, George Penhallow, who reacted in time. Wayland thanked with a nod, and both threw themselves at their metal enemies.

The drivers of the carriages would shoot arrows at the automatons that were going towards them or to go towards the welsh town. They kept firing while they remained in their firm positions.

Tessa moved in a left-to-right direction, with the saber at hand, managing to cut off each automaton that came towards her. He observed that all shadowhunters showed their careful fighting spirit against automata; some fell, while others stood up and threw themselves at the enemy. He also saw Will and Jem fighting side by side like brothers in arms, together, like parabatai. Even Aloysius Starkweather, who, being old, showed a spirit of struggle that was not overcome against three of the metallic beings with demonic souls with sharp blades. The old welsh shadowhunter could defeat them by hitting diagonally, cutting them at that moment, while the protection spell was destroyed.

On each side, the sound of the shields of protection being dropped was heard with greater tremor than that of the swords against the metallic bodies of the demonic machines. Gabriel Lightwood was at a disadvantage when his shield fell when his enemy managed to corral him, until his older brother saved him at that moment; he struck the edge of his saber in the rib, and the automaton fell lifeless on the floor of the mountain. He helped incorporate his brother to get up. The two watched as four other automatons went towards them: carrying swords and axes. The brothers nodded together, and charged towards them.

The battle of Cadair Idris intensified more; the mountain that covered the surface was impregnated with cut metal parts, oils, nuts, and, above all, bodies of shadowhunters that had lost their lives after the protection spell were destroyed by the attempts of the automatons to finish them. The clamor of the leaves crashing against the metal bodies was deafening; wounded, beaten, dead, but they kept fighting until they fell with their last breath of fight. No shadowhunter reversed; the drivers of the carriages covered them with the arrows fired towards the metallic creatures, but there were more that replaced the fallen ones, and they came more.

Everything seemed to become more complicated as the battle progressed, until a loud rumble left them still.

As much the shadowhunters as the demonic automatons observed with great astonishment as Minato Arisato faced Axel Mortmain, the Magister, in a singular combat, as did his two Persona summoned: Thanatos and Dr Victor, in a duel in the air, as if they were two titans in an epic struggle. Minato blocked one by one the pits that Mortmain sent him, while Thanatos was protected from a Zio attack that was launched by his opponent.

Minato charged towards him while using Tarukaja. He did it, Mortmain had been very sore, but he was not going to give up so easily: he tried to kick him, but Minato dodged him, and returned his attack; giving him on his waist. The Magister let out a cry of pain. The Persona, Dr Victor, upon seeing his teacher wounded, gave him a healing spell, but Thanatos took it quickly, and struck him in the face; causing it to fall against the east side of the mountain. Little recovered from his daze, Mortmain counterattacked; his chops became a little faster, with desperation.

Seeing that his enemy wanted to defeat him, he thought of a solution in how to defeat him. Knowing that automatons are linked to Mortmain as a kind of hive mind, then the option would be to liquidate the receiver of the signal. Having a plan in progress, Minato moved closer to Mortmain, while his sword and the sharp blade of Mortmain connected to each other, and their eyes met: he could see through the Magister's his ambition to destroy the shadowhunters and to leave being the winner, but Minato would not let that happen.

He fought the Shadows in the Dark Hour, he fought the Reaper, he faced the Strega group, he battled with all his spirit against Nyx using Ryoji's body as a vessel and ended the Fall. They had faced all the dangers himself, and he would not lose. The threat of Mortmain must be eliminated, and it would be in Cadair Idris where it would end.

With a separation, Minato launched Zio; whose impact gave him correctly in Mortmain's armband, causing the man to let out a scream of pain as he took a few steps backwards. His wrist was scorched by the electricity spell, and he staggered from side to side, as a drunkard did.

The Persona of Mortmain, doctor Victor, seeing the state of his teacher, tried to come to his aid, but Thanatos interposed. With a moan of rage, Dr. Victor threw an Agilao at his enemy. Thanatos, who was not moving, raised his left hand, and stopped it in dried. With a slight movement, Thanatos returned it with a great out. Dr. Victor had time to dodge just in time. When Dr. Victor was going to turn around to look at his opponent, he felt a great pain in his left arm; It was Thanatos, who twisted his arm until it was screaming in agony. With his enemy at a clear disadvantage, Thanatos decided at once to end his life: he cut him deep in the back, and Dr. Victor was motionless, dead in just a minute, where the tip of the blade protruded from the part where his heart was located.

In a single moment, the inert body of baron Victor von Frankenstein, the Persona of the Magister, dissipated in a smoke.

Thanatos let out a roar of victory.

"No ..." roared Mortmain in a small shriek as he grimaced at the pain of his burned wrist and the headache he had. He observed around him how his creations presented flaws; because the connection with his life became unstable when he received that electrical attack that left him very hurt physically. All his work on how to get away from the shadowhunters had failed. His defeat was a clear example of that.

"Your plan of revenge has failed," Minato replied in a firm and direct voice, while Thanatos stood behind his summoner. "Everything you have done is over, you believed that you would be invincible just by manipulating others to achieve your ambition, but everything changed when your plans began to decided to use your mechanical army and a new instrument to summon your Persona as the only means to achieve your goal of revenge, but your ego cut you off, this battle ends here. Ryoji, use Megiddo."

Mortmain pleaded for clemency for his life, but a purple light with rays enveloped him, and he was disintegrated when he exploded. The place where he had been found was now nothing more than a simple hole with herbs and burnt earth.

It was all over: the automatons fell down to be disconnected from their receiver that kept them alive, including the secret base that was inside the Llyn Cau lake and all its automatons.

Minato observed the number of automaton bodies and shadowhunters that covered the entire surface of the earth. They died fulfilling their duty as the secret protectors of humans. Among the fallen, he spotted Consul Wayland and Aloysius Starkweather; dead while they stood firm against their metallic enemies. Wayland died by receiving a few cuts from the automata when he was fighting like a Viking, while the old Starkweather died at the hands of Armaros; protecting the life of her great-granddaughter so that she could defeat the demonic automaton. That was what happened to them. The good thing was that the residents of the London Institute were alive.

It was a costly victory for him and the rest of the shadowhunters, but they finally achieved their true goal. The threat of the Magister, Axel Mortmain, no longer existed.

Now it was only to watch over the dead and mourn for loved ones.

* * *

 **It took me a long time to write this battle, and it is possible that it has several spelling mistakes.**

 **In addition, the invocation instrument designed by Mortmain is based on the COMP of Shin Megami Tensei 2, as well as Persona of Mortmain: Dr Víctor, which is based on the character of Devil Summoner Soul Hackers.**

 **Leave a comment**

 **Regards!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Here is the final chapter of this story that everyone liked a lot! Planning this story made me a long time, with some delays and grammatical errors, but they all liked it, and that makes me happy.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 **As well; I want to thank Suzululu4moe and Victorsan12345 for being aware of this story and the writing. And thanks for the criticism you leave.**

 **Another thing: I made two complete stories that have to do with Persona: a conversation between the messiahs and the messiah and the gravemind so that** **they can read it and enjoy it.**

* * *

The battle of Cadair Idris had ended with the death of Axel Mortmain at the hands of the Persona of Minato Arisato, Thanatos. The lives of some shadowhunters were lost against the demonic automatons, among which was the Consul Joshia Wayland. The funeral of the fallen had been veiled in Alicante, the home of the shadowhunters; whose ceremony was overseen by a Silent Brother who gave a last prayer to the bravely fought in Wales until the flames consumed the corpses and returned ashes.

The battle had been won, but it cost even more. The shadowhunters died in Cadair Idris fulfilling their duty as the protectors of humans; a sacrifice contributed to a greater cause, as any good soldier would do to give his thing for others.

The fight against Mortmain was very exhausting, something that made him remember when he faced the Strega group; but Mortmain had been able to summon his own Persona using a fragment of Plume of Dusk through the invention of his own invocation contraption he had created in his hiding place when he accidentally opened a fissure in his experiments with alchemy. How he had said: it only worked when he reacted through his emotions, and was able to use it easily. The result was the union between the souls of the demons confined in the Pyxis with the body of their automatons as recipients; united to the life of its creator.

Even so, that a Plume of Dusk was in this universe where supernatural creatures exist would be a serious danger if a warlock or other supernatural being would be in possession of that crystalline material. It would be a catastrophe; including if Mortmain united them with their demonic automatons to achieve their objective of revenge against shadowhunters. They were fragments belonging to Nyx, and those fragments reacted to the emotions of living beings, both positive and negative. The increase of negative emotions in the universe where Minato was found would allow the resurgence of the Shadows and the awakening of Nyx will start the Fall.

At least, Minato had made sure that both Mortmain and his hiding place in Llyn Cau were eliminated; concluding his role as Messiah in supernatural universe. It was no longer necessary to stay; the shadowhunters fulfilled the role of being the protectors of humans.

After it was over, Minato and the others returned to the Institute; with some slight scratches and wounds, but intact, alive and cured by Minato; just like he did with the other nephilim. They were inside for a few hours, resting their tired and fatigued bodies of a long struggle against the demonic automatons of Mortmain, until in one day, when they were all having breakfast, a surprise visit emerged.

The Inquisitor Whitelaw had entered the dining room, dressed in a gray street coat and dark trousers instead of his ceremonial robe that wore dresses at the Clave meetings. He had a livid scar on his cheek that he had earned when an automaton narrowly missed him with his sharp blade.

"Inquisitor Whitelaw," Charlotte exclaimed, sitting up, and became instantly serious. "To what do we owe the honor of your visit?"

"Charlotte," the Inquisitor began, and held out his hand. In it he carried a letter, sealed with the seal of the Council. "I have brought you a message"

She looked at him perplexed.

"And you could not have sent it just by mail?"

"This letter is of great importance, it is imperative that you read it at once"

Slowly, the woman took it. He pulled the envelope, then frowned and went to the desk to pick up the card opener. Charlotte opened the letter and read it; the color vanishes from his face. He raised his eyes and looked at the Inquisitor.

"Is it some joke?"

Whitelaw's eyebrow became more pronounced.

"It's no joke, I assure you, do you have an answer?"

"Lottie," said Henry, who was looking at his wife; even the strands of her red hair radiated anxiety and love. "Lotiie, what's wrong, something's wrong?"

She looked at him and then stared at the Inquisitor again.

"No" answer. "I do not have an answer, not yet"

"The Council does not want ..." the Inquisitor began, and then seemed to notice the presence of Minato and the others, then returned to pose in Minato. "If you want to do it" He shrugged.

"Charlotte," Jessamine replied, looking worriedly at the woman who gave her a second chance to stay. "What happens?"

Everyone present was also anxious to know what was happening. Charlotte let out a heavy moan.

"Due to the passing of Consul Wayland at the battle of Cadair Idris, the members of the Council have decided that I should be named as Consul"

The faces of the residents of the Institute were surprised in their faces at this news.

"For the Angel," Henry answered in a low voice, unable to believe what he had heard.

"Consul?" Will asked. "Charlotte be named Consul of the Clave? How?"

"The members of the Clave have thought that Charlotte was the ideal candidate to occupy the position of Consul" answered Inquisitor Whitelaw to those who were in the dining room "Joshia Wayland's nephew, George Penhallow, did not accept to take the charge due It was a lot of responsibility, and that's why we look at you. Charlotte, knowing that you have fulfilled your duty to look for Mortmain, and that you have performed excellent leadership as director of the Institute and that your family faithfully respects the Law. We decided to get you to be named as Consul. So, do you accept it?"

Charlotte doubted whether or not to accept the position that had been given to her. She looked at the faces of the residents; each one waiting for a word on what she was going to say. Seeing that she had faithfully served the Clave and the Law, Charlotte saw that it was a kind of payment for her actions when she and the rest began looking for the clues about Mortmain, and seeing that the previous one had died in combat ...

"I accept," she replied, taking her decision with her. "I accept the position as Consul"

The Inquisitor nodded in approval, and the residents began to applaud for the choice made by the director. Big changes were coming up ahead.

* * *

Cyril had finally told Gabriel that Cecily was in the stables, after the little brother of the Lightwoods had spent most of the day looking for her without success, although he hoped it had not been too obvious, for the whole Institute.

The sunset was falling, and the stables were lit by the warm yellow light of a lantern and they smelled of horses. Cecily was in the compartment of _Balios_ , with her head against the neck of the great black horse. The horse, almost the same color as pitch, fell loosely on his shoulders.

The girl's face was surprised when she saw him.

"Mr. Lightwood, what are you doing here?"

"No" He raised his hands. "Do not call me mr. Lightwood. Me are shadowhunters. For you i am Gabriel"

Cecily's cheeks turned pink.

"Gabriel, why did you come looking for me?"

"That just out of curiosity ..."

"Curiosity?" she raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Yes," he replied. "Is that ... are you going to leave?"

She opened her eyes a lot.

"I ... What is it that leads to doubt if I leave?"

"You came here to take your brother home," Gabriel replied. "But it's obvious that he's not going to leave, is he? He's in love with Tessa.

"Maybe it's possible that Will can choose to go home with me, Tessa is married to my brother's parabatai," Cecily replied with an indecipherable expression.

"He'll go wherever she is, and Jem ... Will knows how to respect his friend's privacy, including if he's with the woman he's always loved, it's a nephilim, the years have changed him, Cecily, now his family is here"

"Do you think you're telling me something I have not observed yet?" Will's heart is here, not in Yorkshire, in a house he has never lived in, with parents he has not seen in years.

"Then, if he can not go home ... I thought maybe you would do it"

"So my parents are not alone, yes. I see why it has occurred to you." Cecily hesitated. "Naturally, you know that in a few years you would expect me to marry and, in any case, leave my parents"

"But not to never speak to them again, they are exiled, Cecily, if you stay here, you will have to break completely with them"

"You say it as if you want me to go home"

"He said it because I'm afraid you will" The words escaped him before he could catch them; all he could do was look at her while a flush covered his cheeks.

Cecily took a step toward him. His blue eyes, wide open, looked at him. He wondered when they had stopped reminding Will's; they were only Cecily's eyes, a shade of blue that he only associated with her.

"When I came here," she explained, "I thought shadowhunters were monsters, I thought I had to rescue my brother, I thought we would go home together, and my parents would be proud of us, that we would be a family again. I realized ... I realized that my brother was safe and happy where he was"

"Do you understand?"

"Yes. Seeing what happened when I saw one of those beings that Minato had summoned, destroyed a large part of the forest in the area, and then it was restored by a fairy. I thought my brother was in trouble, but that concern dissipated when I saw that Minato was capable, had summoned the archangel Raphael at the wedding of Tessa and Jem, and had summoned again the same creature with the coffins against the other being that Mortmain had summoned in Cadair Idris. After the battle; all my opinion of The shadowhunters had taken a turn when I found out that they only protected humans from dangerous creatures, what happened in Cadair Idris is an example of that, my father chose to leave the nephilim and marry my mother. shadowhunters is Will's. Choice of love or war: you love choices are hard, in your own way, and I do not think my parents will reproach my brother for his choice, but above all, what matters is that be happy"

But what about you?" Gabriel asked, and at that moment they were very close, almost touching. "Now you have to choose yourself, stay or return"

"I'll stay," Cecily said. "I choose the war"

Gabriel let out a sigh that he did not know he was holding.

"Will you give up your home?"

"A house full of drafts in Yorkshire?" joked Cecily. "This is London"

"And will you give up what you know?"

"What I know is boring"

"And will you give up on seeing your parents? It's against the Law ..."

She smiled, a slight smile.

"Everyone skips the Law"

"Cecy," he said, and covered the minimum distance that separated them; suddenly he was already kissing her; his hands clumsy on her shoulders, at first, sliding on the stiff taffeta of her dress before sliding her fingers down the nape of her neck and plunging them into the soft hair. She tensed, surprised, before relaxing against him, who parted her lips at the sweet taste of his mouth. When she pulled away, he felt dizzy. "Cecy?" he said again in a hoarse voice.

"Five," she said. Her lips and cheeks were flushed, but her gaze was firm.

"Five?" he repeated without understanding.

"My assessment," she said, and smiled at her. "Your skill and technique may require a bit of work, but there is undoubtedly an innate talent, what you need is practice"

"And are you willing to be my teacher?"

"I would feel deeply insulted if you chose another" she replied, kissed him again.

* * *

Minato was confused by the words that Jem had told him, who was looking at him pleadingly through his eyes. The young man with blue hair cocked his head to the side, confused.

"Please, Minato," Jem had said, in a pleading tone without raising his voice. "Please, I want you to help me"

Minato crossed his arms, while looking at him.

"What do you want?"

"Minato ... I know that this is very complicated to explain, and I know that you are going to doubt me, but I want to do it because I have made a very risky decision"

The young man with blue hair raised an eyebrow.

"And what would be the favor?"

Jem hesitated to say it.

"It will sound weird, but ... I want you to put a spell on me so that my eyes will not be sewn when I become a Silent Brother"

Minato wrinkled his face, and tilted his head back.

"Become a Silent Brother? Why would you?"

"Look, Minato, I know what I told you had been a crazy thing, but it was an option I had thought about when you healed me of my yin fen disease, and I thank you so much ... Still, live like a mortal and aging is normal for couples when they get married, and that's what most crossed my is immortal, but she can hurt herself, since a warlock does not age, and that's what worries me: leaving Tessa alone When I die, and I do not want her to stay alone for the rest of her life, I want to be with her always, as a form of payment for the help you have given us during the rest of the days of your stay at the Institute; I ask you to please do me this last favor." Jem put his two hands together in a prayer position and bowed his head. " _Wo kenqiu ni, mi sai ya, bangzhu zhege fanren shi ta de daogao chengwei xianshi_ "

In Minato's mind, Huang Long laughed at Jem's prayer.

 _'Give the nephilim his prayer,'_ the chinese dragon told him internally. Minato moaned as he shook his head, but agreed to give him his wish. He extended his left hand, and a light shone, coming into contact with the temple of the shadowhunter.

"Ready," Minato replied, until he was wrapped in a surprise arm, while the nephilim gave small jumps of happiness.

"There's no need," the blue-haired teenager told him, breaking away from the embrace that left him dizzy. "What about Tessa and Will? You'll have to tell them about your choice"

"It's possible that they and the rest of the others are not going to like the idea of becoming a Silent Brother, but it's a decision I made myself." He gave Minato a weak half smile. "They will form a scandal when they know"

Minato nodded in silence, and the next morning, that omen was fulfilled: everyone reacted in a shocking way when Jem said them in the living room. That was not to be expected when he explained his choice. Those who affected them the most were his fiancee and his parabatai; who protested against it, but Jem calmed them down, knowing that everyone would not agree to that crazy decision.

After an intense discussion, everyone accepted Jem's proposal; there was sadness on the part of his parabatai and his fiancee, but they accepted their friend's choice and respected him. It would be the last days of him in the Institute, like those of Minato.

* * *

The Council room was very bright. A large double circle had been painted on the dais in front of the room, and in the space between the circles there were runes: runes of union, runes of wisdom, runes of skill and dexterity, and the runes symbolizing Sophie's name. This one was kneeling in the center of the circles. Her dark hair was loose and it fell to her waist, a cascade of curls against her darker suit. She was very beautiful under the light that was falling from the skylights of the dome; the scar on his cheek was red as a rose.

The Consul was on top of her, with her white hands raised, the Mortal Cup held in them. Charlotte wore a simple scarlet tunic that hung loose. His face was serious and showed severity.

"Take the Cup, Sophie Collins," he said, and in the room there was a silence of encouragement.

The Council room was not crowded, but in the row that Minato occupied, sitting at the end, were Gideon and Gabriel, Cecily and Henry, Will and Jem, Tessa and Jessamine, all on the edge of the seat, anxious, waiting to Sophie ascend. At both ends of the platform stood a Silent Brother, with his head bowed and his parchment robes as if they had been carved in marble.

Charlotte lowered the Cup and handed it to Sophie, who took it carefully.

"Do you swear, Sophie Collins, to renounce the world of the mundane and follow the path of the shadowhunters? Will you take the blood of Angel Raziel and honor this blood? Do you swear to serve the Clave, obey the Law as the Alliance and obey the word of the Council? Will you defend what is human and mortal, knowing that for your service there will be no reward, no thanks, but only honor?"

"I swear," Sophie replied firmly.

"Can you be a shield for the weak, a light in the dark, a truth among the lies, a tower in the flood, an eye that sees when others are blind?"

"May l"

"And when you die, will you give your body to the nephilim to burn it and your ashes can be used to build the City of Bone?"

"I will give it"

"Then, drink," Charlotte ordered.

Minato heard Gideon gulp air. That was the dangerous part of the ritual. That was the part that could kill those lacking in preparation or worth.

The girl inclined her head and brought the Cup to her lips. Minato noticed that everyone was worried; luckily he was prepared to use some of his healing spells in case the test failed. Sophie's neck moved when swallowing

The circle around Charlotte and her was lit once with a cold light, very light blue, and hid them both. When he disappeared, Minato moaned in relief, as did the others. He saw Sophie holding the Cup. A glow went around the bowl as she handed it back to Charlotte, who smiled contentedly.

"Now, you are nephilim," she announced. "You will be called Sophie Shadowhunter, from the blood of Jonathan Shadowhunter, daughter of the nephilim"

And Sophie stood up, amid the cheers of the seats. Gideon's cheers were the strongest of all. The Persona of each Arcana; angels, demons, gods and ancient heroes applauded with great approval for the Ascension of the maid to become a shadowhunter; Minato also applauded with happiness that he had passed the test without getting hurt. Sophie smiled, her whole face was radiant in the winter sun, falling down the clean skylight. Shadows moved across the floor, from one side to the other, fast. Minato looked up; the whiteness was covering the glass, turning smoothly on the other side of the glass.

"Snow," he mused to himself. He remembered when the snow was falling very slowly in the avenues and streets. He remembered him and his friends went to the mall. He remembered his last day in his universe before becoming the Great Seal.

He remembered the Christmas he had spent with his friends, and a smile formed at the corners of his lips.

* * *

The Enclave's annual Christmas party had been held in the grand ballroom where Tessa and Jem's wedding had taken place.

Christmas among the shadowhunters was not the Christmas that Minato had known in his universe. There were no advent wreaths, no Christmas carols. There was a tree, but it was not decorated in the usual way, it was a huge spruce, which rose almost to the ceiling at the back of the ballroom. (When he saw the big tree, Will told him that he had asked Charlotte the same thing, and she had answered something about Magnus.) There were lighted candles in the branches, although Minato could not see how they endured. They projected even more golden light into the room.

Tied to the branches of the tree, and hanging from the holders of the chandeliers of the wall and the table, from the knobs of the doors, were glittering crystalline runes, each as clear as crystal that affected the light and cast brilliant rainbows for the room. The walls were decorated with interlaced wreaths of holly and ivy, red berries shining among the green leaves. Here and there, there were sprigs of mistletoe with their white berries. There was even one attached to _Church_ necklace, which was hidden under one of the tables very angry.

Minato remembered the food Bridget had made at the wedding, and the tables were full of carved chicken and turkey, pheasants and hares, hams and pies, fine sandwiches, ice creams, sweets, biscuits, cream puddings, colored gelatin, drunken cupcakes and pudding flambéed with brandy, sorbet, wine with hot cinnamon and large bowls with punch. There were horns of abundance pouring sweets, and sachets of St. Nicholas, each with a piece of coal, a bit of sugar or a lemon, to indicate to the recipient whether his behavior during the year had been bad, sweet or bitter. There had been tea and presents before only for the occupants of the Institute, who had exchanged gifts before the guests arrived; Charlotte on Henry's lap, sitting on a chair, had opened gift after gift for the baby, which would arrive in April. (And whose name, it was finally decided, was going to be Charles. "Charles Fairchild," Charlotte had said proudly, holding up the little hand Sophie had woven, with the initials C.F. on one end.)

"Charles Buford Fairchild" had corrected Henry.

His wife grimaced.

"Fairchild? Not Branwell?" Minato had asked, tilting his head.

Charlotte had smiled slyly.

"I am the Consul, it has been decided that, in this case, the boy will carry my name, Henry does not care, does he, darling?"

"Not at all," he had answered. "Especially because Charles Buford Branwell would have sounded pretty silly, but Charles Buford Fairchild has a special something"

"Henry..."

Minato smiled at the couple. At that moment he was near the Christmas tree, watching the members of the Enclave show off their finery: the women in the intense jeweled shades of winter, dressed in red satin, sapphire silk and gold taffeta, and the men in elegant tuxedos. Everyone walked and laughed. Sophie was with Gideon, gleaming and relaxed in an elegant green dress; Cecily was in blue, running back and forth delighted to see everything, with Gabriel following her, all long legs, wild hair and entertaining adoration. Ryoji was with Jessamine, chatting to each other as they laughed at their own comments. A huge log, surrounded by crowns of ivy and holly, burned in the huge fireplace. And hanging on it were nets that contained golden apples, nuts, colorful popcorn and candies. There was also music, soft and evocative, and Charlotte seemed to have finally found a use for the taste for Bridget's singing, because her voice rose above the sound of the instruments, singing and sweet.

 _Oh my love you hurt me_

 _by throwing me with discourtesy._

 _I've loved you so long_

 _enjoying your company_

 _Greensleeves was my joy;_

 _Greensleeves was my pleasure;_

 _Greensleeves was my golden heart,_

 _And who else does not work Greensleeves?_

" _Rain potatoes from heaven,_ " said a funny voice. " _Let it thunder to the sound of Greensleeves_ "

Minato turned around. Will had suddenly appeared behind the three. As usual, he wore a blue, black and white suit, something he wore when he watched Tessa hide a blush.

"Shakespeare," said Jem. " _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ "

"Not one of his best works," Will commented, squinting as he looked at the three of them. That night, Tessa had chosen a pink silk dress, without jewelry except for a velvet ribbon, which twisted around her neck and fell down her back. Sophie had combed it, as a favor, not as a servant, and had interlaced small white berries between the curls; It felt very elegant and striking. Jem was wearing his elegant gray suit with the same color pants he usually wore, and Minato wearing a suit of etiquette with his suit and jet-colored trousers. "Although it has its moments"

"Always a literary critic" sighed Tessa.

"You carry mistletoe berries on your neck," he said with his usual smile and sarcastic tone. "Technically, I think it means that anyone can kiss you at any time"

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Do you think it's possible that they try?"

Jem prayed her cheek; noticing his warmth of the touch of his hand.

"I would kill anyone who did it"

"Good," she said. "It would be the first time you did something scandalous on your last Christmas"

The two laughed. Even knowing that it would be the last time to be in the Institute, Jem took it with all the humor he had to not get depressed when he left to become a Silent Brother. It was Will who had explained to Minato that, to be a Silent Brother, he needed to leave everything behind; friends, families, personal objects and all memories of a past life, to be stripped of all identity of who you were, and then you sewed your mouth and eyes. At the end of the ritual, they put runes that made them revert old age and for the use of telepathy. That reminded him of the vow of silence used by the taoist monks in their prayers and among other practices they did in different cultures. Minato understood that it was Jem's decision to accept joining the Silent Brotherhood to accompany the woman he has loved for the rest of his immortality. It was tragic, but beautiful, and at the same time sad; observing how close people became old while time and years advanced in seconds.

Then there was his last stay in the shadowhunter universe; his role of stopping Mortmain was over when he killed him in Cadair Idris, preventing him from making the Plume of Dusk to use in the automatons and in the rise of the Shadows, along with the new awakening of the Fall. It was a fragment of his soul that was in the Great Seal, but he would have good memories in Victorian London: the hidden world, the demons, the supernatural creatures, the shadowhunters ... everything would be part of a great experience that he had lived in a universe different from yours.

It was not necessary for him to stay, and humanity had its own guardians hidden in the shadows without being seen.

"What's up with that face, Glas!" Will had said in an energetic voice, pulling him out of his thoughts. "It's a better time to celebrate a holiday without being worried about being attacked by Mortmain's automatons"

"... I was thinking about some things" he shrugged.

"Well, leave those thoughts for later, enjoy this party" Jem made a tour of his hand around the great hall full of guests, and put his eyes on Ryoji and Jessamine, dancing to the sound of music. "the greek god of death protects us"

Minato nodded. Before Will could comment, a tall blond man walked towards them. He was thick, about thirty years old, and with a scar along his chin. Hair disheveled and thin, blue eyes and tanned skin by the sun. It seemed even darker against his starched shirt. Jem had been perplexed.

"Uncle?"

"It's good to see you're fine, Jem," his uncle had said with a smile. "I could not greet you in Cadair Idris while fighting with those metallic creatures, but I could see how you fought bravely, like a shadowhunter, that makes me happy"

"Thanks." Jem gave him a half smile.

"Ah, you must be my nephew's friends: your parabatai, Will Herondale. Miss Gray, the halfblood ... and warlock Minato Arisato! It's a pleasure to meet you!." He shook hands with the blue-haired young man with emotion. "I have witnessed how you had confronted Mortmain in the fight, including when you summoned that being with the coffins that fought against the same being that Mortmain had invoked, believe me, it's a great honor to meet him in person! introduce myself, the emotion made me not be modest. My name is Elias Carstairs"

"... nice to meet you, Mr. Carstairs," Minato told him, while he still had his handshake.

"Just call me Elias, please"

"I understand" he nodded.

"Uncle" was struck by his nephew.

"Hey?" Elias looked at Jem curiously, and the man's eyes shone when he recovered what had come. He let go of Minato's hand, and pulled a short sword with an intricately carved scabbard from his belt. He handed it to his nephew who took it. The scabbard was covered with intricate patterns of leaves and runes, carved with brilliance, brilliant in the golden light. With a gesture, Jem unsheathed his sword and held it up in front of him.

The hilt was also covered with the same pattern of runes and leaves, but the blade was simple and bare, except for a line of words in the center. Minato leaned over to read them.

'I am _Cortana_ , of the same steel and temper as _Joyeuse_ and _Durendal_ '

Inside, Ronald hissed at the sight of the sword with the same steel as his.

" _Joyeuse_ was Charlemagne's sword," Will explained, in the strained voice Minato knew he was holding back the emotion. " _Durendal_ was Ronald's, this sword ... was born of legend"

"Forged by the first shadowhunter armourer, Wayland, the Blacksmith, he has a feather from the Angel's wing on the hilt," Elias pointed out. "Has been in the Carstairs family for hundreds of years, and your father, Jem, instructed me to give it to you when you turned eighteen, and now I give it to you, as a tribute to my brother."

Jem swallowed hard at the family's sword, but locked it in its sheath and handed it to his uncle, who was puzzled.

"Why did you do it? It was a ..."

"Sorry, uncle, but I do not want to accept it"

He looked at him with dismay.

"What's this, Jem? I do not understand."

Jem let out a wail of hesitation.

"I'm grateful you gave me my father's sword, but I can not have it, you see, it's hard to explain, and I'd be dismayed if I told you, and that's why you have it, not me."

"I do not understand, Jem, what are you trying to tell me? Is there anything ...?"

"Tell me, uncle, do not you think you have children of your own?"

He opened his eyes surprised.

"What has to do with not giving you the sword?"

Jem moaned, and proceeded to tell his uncle the truth of his opposition. Elias was totally shocked, and understood the decision of his nephew.

"I understand," agreed Elias with assent. "I will respect your decision, and I will follow your advice"

"I'm glad you understood," Jem said. "I know that you will take care of the sword, in that I am sure, when I become a Silent Brother, it is not necessary that it has an object that reminds me, but the moments that I have shared with others, no matter how illustrious my lineage"

* * *

On the steps to the Institute it was cold, a cold in which Minato was wrapped in a borrowed coat, looking at the night covered with frost. The wind was ice cold was just like the one on Port Island Tatsumi when winter had arrived. He remembered all the streets, businesses and avenues covered in the white blanket of the snow when descending. It was at that moment where he had spent a warm Christmas after taking a short break on how to end the Dark Hour.

Winter had always been the purest season; even the smoke and dirt of London were trapped by the cold, icy and clean. It would be the last Christmas he would spend with the shadowhunters, including that it would also be Jem's last one when he left for the Silent City and became a member of the Silent Brotherhood. Each one by separate ways.

As Jem had said in the ballroom: it was not necessary to have an object for you to remember, but the moments you shared with others. Minato left everything behind when he sacrificed his soul in the creation of the Great Seal to avoid the Fall, but he would have wonderful memories of his friends, and Jem would have them too.

The doors had opened, and Magnus had left. He was wearing a large astrakhan wool coat, and his tall silk hat was already dotted with fallen snowflakes.

"So you're here, right? I asked the others, and they told me that you had gone outside to think" said Magnus; He descended the stairs until he was next to Minato, and looked at the patio. "I must say that you have caused a great sensation among the nephilim, they all speak of your deeds when you confronted Mortmain with a creature with coffins that you had invoked, and you and Ryoji Mochizuki have a great resemblance. you are a very interesting individual"

He nodded at the compliment, and asked:

"You go?"

"Yes," Magnus replied, as he put on a pair of gloves. "The truth is that I leave London"

"Do you leave London?" Minato commented, tilting his head.

"Exactly" Asmodeus' son waved his finger at a wandering snowflake. He released a blue spark and disappeared. "I'm not a londoner, Minato. I've made a stop with Woosley for a while after arguing with Camille, but his home is not my home, and Woosley and I get fed up with each other after not too long."

He nodded.

"Where are you going?"

"New York. The New World! A new life, a new continent." He held up his hands. "May even take me to the Institute cat with me. Charlotte says she may be very depressed when Jem leaves"

Minato shrugged.

"You may be able to get used to Tessa, since the cat likes her"

"That would depend on how loving the owner is, in addition, it was a very wonderful time to be in London, in the life of all immortal warlock, it is time for us to enter new mysterious terrains that are unknown to the human mind. new chapter in our stories, and tell me, will you stay with them, or will you leave too?"

"... I was thinking the same as you," Minato said in his usual quiet tone.

"I assumed it" Magnus gave Minato a wink of his catlike eyes. "Maybe we'll cross again at some point in time. Goodbye, Minato Arisato." Turned his back on her and started walking toward the fence until it was lost in the whiteness of the snow.

With the warlock gone, Minato decided to walk down the stairs to open the door and enter the warm interior of the Institute, while closing the door behind him.

* * *

After finishing the Christmas party, everything had changed since then: Jem said goodbye to everyone in the Institute as he climbed into the carriage of the Silent Brothers that went straight to the City of Bones, where he would become one of them; It was also there that Minato told them that his time had come to an end: it was time to return to the Great Seal.

Everyone felt sad at the departure of two of their wonderful tenants, but Minato decided to make one last stop with them before leaving. He was going to accompany Will and Cecily, along with Gabriel Lightwood, to the home of the parents of the Herondale brothers, through Henry's new invention in the crypt. In front of them was a stone construction in the shape of a door, large, silvery and gleaming on the far wall.

The Portal, as its name indicates, was functioning based on the energy of the runes that allowed its operation; which was helped by Minato in using Metatron to make the artifact work, and it turned out to be a success: the image of a blue sky (the sky outside the Institute was a London gray) and covered hills were visible in the mirror. of snow.

Cecily made little jumps of excitement in her white kid's boots. She was wrapped in a red coat and her hands were clasped before her.

"I can not believe we're going home," the girl commented.

"We're going home, Cecy," said Will, who was standing next to Tessa, with his shoulder against hers. He looked pale and nervous. Before Jem left for the Silent City, he had told Will that he already knew the feelings he had for Tessa, and gave her consent to take care of her, and that he could also marry her so she would not feel sad and alone. "Not to stay in. We're going to visit, I want to introduce my fiancée to our parents" and when she said that her pallor diminished a little and she curled her lips in a smile, "so that they know the girl I'm going to marry"

"Oh, come on," Cecily replied. "We can use the Portal to go see them whenever we want! Charlotte is the Consul, so we can not get into trouble"

The aforementioned growled.

"Cecily, this is an extraordinary expedition, the Portal is not a toy, you can not use it when you want, and this tour must be a secret, but nobody except those of us here can know that you have been visiting your parents, that I have allowed you to violate the Law! "

"I will not tell anybody!" protested Cecily. "Gabriel and Minato either" He looked at the two boys. "They will not, right?"

"Somebody remind me, why are you coming with us?" Will asked the world in general in addition to his sister.

Cecily put her arms on her hips.

"Why is Tessa and Minato coming?"

"Because Tessa and I are going to get married," Will answered, and his fiancee smiled. "And Minato will be the godfather again at our wedding"

"Well, Gabriel and I may be getting married," Ceily replied. "Someday"

He made a strangled noise and became alarmingly purple.

Will raised his hands to heaven.

"You can not get married, Cecily, you're only fifteen, when I get married, I'll be eighteen! An adult!"

Cecily did not seem impressed.

"We could have a long courtship," he replied. "But I do not know why you're advising me to marry a man my parents have never seen"

Will jumped:

"I'm not advising you to marry a man your parents have never seen!"

"So, we agree, Gabriel must know mom and dad." Cecily turned to Henry. "Is the Portal ready?"

Tessa leaned toward Will.

"I love the way he handles you," she whispered. "It's very entertaining to watch"

Jessamine moved to Minato, and whispered in his ear:

"I say that both sister and brother are just as annoying," she said softly, and Minato shook her head in response. "At least I can enjoy being with Ryoji one last time before you leave"

"The Portal is ready," Henry warned. "And remember, in an hour I'll open it again so they can come back"

"And understand that this is only for once," Charlotte insisted anxiously. "Even if I am the Consul, I can not allow them to visit their worldly family ..."

"Not even Christmas?" Cecily asked, making her eyes tragic.

Charlotte was visibly moved.

"Well, maybe for Christmas ..."

"And birthdays," added Tessa. "Birthdays are special"

The Consul covered her face with her hands.

"Oh, for the Angel"

Henry laughed and gestured towards the Portal.

"Come in," he said, and Ceily was the first; disappeared in the Portal as if it had pierced a waterfall. Gabriel followed, and then Will and Tessa, holding hands, and last Minato. Lights burst behind his eyelids, and he emerged from the darkness suddenly, blinking and staggering. Will helped him get up.

They were on the wide curved driveway of Ravenscar Manor. Minato had seen the place only from on high, when Jem, Will and Tessa had been together in Yorkshire, not knowing that it was Will's family that lived in that house and the destruction that Ryoji had caused against the automata. He remembered that the mansion was in the middle of a valley, with hills that rose around it, covered with gorse and heather, at that moment sprinkled with snow. The trees of the forest that had been repaired by the magic of Titania were covered by several layers of the whiteness of the snow.

The door was dark oak, with a heavy brass knocker in the center. Will looked at his sister, who nodded at him; then he squared his shoulders, picked up the knocker and let go. The resulting roar seemed to reverberate throughout the valley, and Will cursed under his breath.

Tessa brushed her wrist with her hand.

"Have courage" encouraged him. "It's not a duck, right?"

He smiled at her, dark hair falling over his eyes, the moment the door opened and a neat maid dressed in black with a white cap appeared. She glanced at the group before the door and his eyes popped out of their sockets.

"Miss Cecily," she exclaimed in a choked voice, and then her gaze fell on Will. Put a hand to his mouth, turned around and ran into the house.

"Oh, wow," exclaimed Tessa.

"I have that effect on women," Will joked. "I probably should have warned you before you agreed to marry me"

"I can still change my mind," Tessa replied sweetly.

"Do not you dare ..." he began, with a choked laugh, and suddenly there were people at the door: a tall, broad-shouldered man with a mass of blond hair with gray hair and light blue eyes. Behind him was a woman: slim and very beautiful, with the black hair of Will and Cecily and blue eyes as dark as violets. A scream escaped him when he saw Will, and his hands rose up, waving like little birds frightened by a gust of wind.

Minato saw that Tessa had let go of her fiancé's hand. He seemed paralyzed, like a fox cornered by dogs.

"Go," his beloved had said quietly, and he took a step forward, and then his mother was already embracing him.

"I knew you would come back" he confessed. "I knew it" and was followed by a torrent of welsh, in which Minato could only discern the name of Will. His father was stunned; he smiled, holding out his arms to Cecily, who ran towards them with more desire than Minato had ever seen him do anything.

For the next few minutes, Tessa and Gabriel waited uncomfortably at the door, not looking at each other, but not quite knowing where else to look, except for Minato, who kept his expression calm and indifferent. After a few minutes, Will pulled away from his mother, patting his shoulder tenderly. She laughed, although her eyes were full of tears, and said something in welsh that Minato suspected was a comment that Will was already taller than her.

"Little mama," he joked affectionately, confirming the suspicion, and pulled away just as his mother's gaze fell on Tessa and then on Minato and Gabriel, surprised. "Mom and dad, this is Theresa Gray, we're engaged and we'll get married next year."

Will's mother stifled a scream, though to Tessa's relief she seemed more surprised than anything else; Will's father looked immediately at Minato and Gabriel, and then at Cecily, squinting.

"And who are these gentlemen?"

Will smiled even more.

"The blue haired boy is Minato Arisato: the wedding godfather, and the other is Cecily's friend, Gabriel Lightwood"

Will's father shook hands with Gabriel and Minato.

"A warlock as a wedding godfather?" answered Edmund Herondale, surprised. "How is that possible?"

Will laughed.

"Well, father, that will be an incredible story when I tell you when we enter" And with that affirmation, everyone entered the interior of the mansion.


End file.
